f 


engineering 

T  .ihrarv 


Supreme  in  Electrical  Development 


Story"  §f  California 


Supreme  in  Electrical  Development 


As  told  to  business  leaders 

at  the  Pacific  Coast  Industrial  Conference 

held  on  June  10,  1921 

Del  Monte,  Cal. 


Engineering 
library 

Copyright 

Journal   of    Electricity 

and   Western   Industry 

February  1, 

1922 


THE  Story  of  California,  as  told  to  business  leaders 
assembled  in  the  Pacific  Coast  Industrial  Conference 
at  Del  Monte  on  June  10,  1921,  is  the  story  of  modern 
progress  and  development  through  the  help  of  Electric 
Power.    More  than  that,  it  is  the  story  of  how  fundamen- 
tally necessary  electric  power  is  in  every  phase  of  our 
daily  life,  and  of  what  allegiance  each  of  us  owes'  to  the 
development  of  this  great  modern  force. 

The  Pacific  Coast  Industrial  Conference  was  arranged 
by  the  Pacific  Coast  Electrical  Association,  for  leaders  in 
all  phases  of  business  life  in  the  West.  The  data  given 
herein  was  compiled  by  the  Journal  of  Electricity  and 
Western  Industry,  under  the  leadership  of  its  editor, 
Mr.  Robert  Sibley,  from  statistics  gathered  by  this  jour- 
nal with  the  cooperation  of  the  fifty-eight  power  com- 
panies of  the  West.  As  this  information  was  gathered 
from  four  thousand  industrial  plants  of  the  West,  no- 
where else  may  be  found  such  complete  data  on  the 
close  relationship  of  your  business  to  the  public  service 
industry. 

The  information  in  this  booklet  is  given  in  the  form  of 
excerpts  from  the  several  addresses  made  by  the  vari- 
ous speakers  at  the  Industrial  Conference,  and  is  here- 
with presented  to  the  public  in  published  form 
through  the  courtesy  of   the  Journal  of 
Electricity  and  Western  Industry. 


785368 


What  Private  Initiative  Has  Done  for   the   West 
in  Hydroelectric  Development 

The  greatest  interconnected  system  of  power  transmission  lines 
in  the  world:  Medford,  Oregon,  to  the  Mexican  Border  and  up 
into  Nevada.  On  January  1,  1922,  there  is  in  this  interconnection 
over  a  million  horsepower  from  hydroelectric  generating  plants 
and  five  hundred  thousand  horsepower  in  steam  generating  plants. 

The  largest  concentrated  block  of  electric  power  ever  available  for 
public  use,  made  possible  by  this  interconnection.  The  total  annual 
electrical  energy  delivered  to  consumers  in  this  vast  interconnection 
is  rapidly  approaching  four  billion  kilowatt  hours. 

The  highest  per  capita  use  of  electricity  of  any  community  in  the 
world:  the  Western  States.  In  one  of  the  states  the  per  capita  con- 
sumption has  reached  the  wonderful  total  of  2000  kilowatt  hours. 
The  average  per  capita  use  in  the  west  is  over  twice  the  per  capita 
use  of  the  nation  as  a  whole. 

The  first  long  distance  transmission  line:  20  miles  at  10,000  volts 
from  San  Antonio  to  San  Bernardino,  California. 

Longest  high  voltage  transmission:  87,000  and  55,000  volts,  539 
miles,  from  Mono  county,  California,  to  Yuma,  Arizona;  Southern 
Sierras  Power  Company. 

Highest  voltage  transmission  ever  attempted  in  the  world:  Present 
record  of  actual  operation,  150,000  volts,  240  miles,  Big  Creek  to 
Los  Angeles;  Southern  California  Edison  Company.  The  Great 
Western  Power  Company  has  constructed  and  will  soon  operate 
at  165,000  volts,  a  200-mile  line  from  its  Caribou  plant  on  the 
Feather  River  to  San  Francisco.  The  Pacific  Gas  and  Electric  is 
now  installing  a  190-mile,  220,000-volt  line  from  Pit  River  to  the 
Bay  District,  which  will  undoubtedly  stand  as  a  supreme  accom- 
plishment for  many  years. 

Highest  privately  owned  dam  in  the  United  States:  295-foot  Lake 
Spaulding  Dam,  Pacific  Gas  and  Electric  Company. 

Highest  head  reaction  turbine  in  the  world:  two  25,000-hp.,  810-foot 
head  units  in  Kern  River  No.  3  plant,  Southern  California  Edison 
Company. 

Highest  head  hydroelectric  plant  in  America:  2131-foot  head,  Big 
Creek  No.  1,  third  unit,  Southern  California  Edison  Company.  Plans 
have  been  drawn  for  three  plants  developing  close  to  2500-foot 
head  on  the  Kings  River  and  Big  Creek,  by  San  Joaquin  Light  and 
Power  Corporation  and  Southern  California  Edison  Company. 

Largest  high  head  impulse  turbines  in  the  world:  two  30,000-hp., 
1008-foot  head  units  in  Caribou  Plant,  Great  Western  Power 
Company. 

Other  large  units:  Two  40,000-hp.,  454-foot  head  reaction  turbines, 
Pit  River  No.  1,  Pacific  Gas  and  Electric  Company;  23,000-hp.  re- 
action turbines,  White  River  plant,  Puget  Sound  Power  and  Light 
Company  and  Long  Lake  plant,  Washington  Water  Power  Company. 


THE  West  abounds  in  swift  mountain  streams,  now  running  idly  to  the 
sea,  which  are  susceptible  of  harnessing  in  the  beneficial  production  of 
hydroelectric  power.     California  alone  can  produce  nine  million  horse- 
power in  this  way,  and  in  the  eleven  Western  States  lie  seventy  per  cent  of 
the  nation's  undeveloped  water  power.  On  the  stream  shown  in  this  illus- 
tration one  power  company  is  carrying  through  a  development  which  will 
ultimately  produce  over    eight  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  horsepower. 


Business  Leader's  Conference 


Introductory  Remarks  at  the  Opening 

of  the  Pacific  Coast  Conference 

of  Business  Leaders 

Del  Monte,  California,  June  10,   1921 

Mr.  John  B.  Miller,  President  Southern 
California    Edison  Company,   presiding 

IT  is  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  preside  over  this 
meeting  this  afternoon,  which  has  been  called  for 
the  purpose  of  explaining  the  definite  relation  ex- 
isting between  our  power  companies  and  industry.  I 
have  devoted  twenty-five  years  of  my  life  to  bringing 
about  a  better  understanding  between  the  corporations 
engaged  in  our  business,  and  between  those  corporations 
and  the  people.  I  have  done  so  because  I  believed  from 
the  very  first  that  to  realize  this  ambition  which  is  mine, 
and  which  I  know  is  yours,  is  a  public  service.  The  ambi- 
tion to  give  the  very  best  service  at  the  lowest  rate — to 
be  an  efficient  public  servant — can  only  be  realized  by  the 
thorough  understanding  that  our  interests,  both  between 
sister  corporations  and  between  those  corporations  and 
the  public,  are  identical,  and  that  we  must  have  harmony 
if  we  are  going  to  realize  our  ambitions. 

Now,  in  carrying  on  that  work  I  haven't  been  alone. 
I  don't  wish  to  give  that  idea.  You  all  have  been  most 
generous  in  that  same  kind  of  service,  but  in  carrying  out 
that  work  there  has  been  one  who  has  been  of  the  greatest 
service  through  the  columns  of  his  journal.  He  has 
month  after  month  and  year  after  year  worked  for  that 
same  ideal,  and  I  know  that  you  feel  as  I  do  when  I  tell 
you  that  that  man  is  Robert  Sibley,  who  is  now  going  to 
speak  to  you. 

[Page    Seven] 


Storjr  §f  California 


The  Basic  Role  of  Electricity 

BY  ROBERT  SIBLEY 
Editor,  Journal  of  Electricity  and  Western  Industry 

THE  subject  of  hydro-electricity  and  its  generation  is 
one  of  such  difficulty  to  the  layman  that  it  seemed  to 

me  a  good  plan  to  give  you  one  or  two  of  the  very 
fundamental  things  about  it  so  that  you  may  undersand 
what  we  are  talking  about  and  get  some  conception  of 
what  we  mean  when  we  speak  of  hydroelectric  energy. 

About  a  hundred  years  ago,  to  be  exact,  in  1830,  there 
lived  in  this  country  a  young  man  named  Joseph  Henry, 
and  it  was  due  to  Joseph  Henry,  an  American,  that  the 
great  laws  of  electricity  became  so  known  that  we  could 
harness  our  water  power.  A  simple  experiment  will  give 
you  some  conception  of  how  the  thing  works,  as  the  say- 
ing goes.  You  are  all  familiar  with  what  is  known  as  a 
horse  shoe  magnet.  Well,  Joseph  Henry  found  that  when 
he  took  an  ordinary  wire  and  dashed  that  wire  across  the 
end  of  a  magnet  a  current  of  electricity  began  to  flow  in 


The  magnet  on  the  left  in  Fig.  1  represents  the  electrical  generat- 
ing equipment  in  the  power  plant.  When  the  wire  is  dashed  across 
it,  a  current  of  electricity  flows  along  the  wire  in  the  direction 
shown  by  the  arrows.  The  reaction  between  the  current  thus 
caused  to  flow  in  the  wire  and  the  magnet  at  the  right,  representing 
the  electric  motor  in  the  factory,  causes  the  wire  to  move  back  or 
forward  in  the  direction  opposite  to  that  of  the  wire  at  the  left 
magnet. 

that  wire.  No  one  knows  exactly  why  it  does,  but  that 
was  the  thing  he  found.  He  was  the  first  to  discover 
that  law.  That  is  all  the  thing  is,  simply  a  wire  dash- 
ing across  in  front  of  a  magnet  causing  a  current  to  go 
alternately  back  and  forth  in  the  city  far  away.  And, 


[Page    Eight] 


Electricity's  Basic  Role 


by  the  way,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  Henry  never  got 
the  credit  for  that  law.  A  man  over  in  England  by  the 
name  of  Michael  Faraday  one  year  later  published  this 
law  and  in  late  years  it  has  become  known  as  the  Faraday- 
Henry  Law. 


Fig.  2.  The  latest  record  in  high  voltage  transmission — the  165,000- 
volt  line  of  the  Great  Western  Power  Company. 

What  is  shown  in  Fig.  2  is  part  of  a  modern  electric 
transmission  system.  You  can  readily  see  that  as  the 
miles  of  wires  go  into  the  city  it  is  necessary  to  support 
these  wires  and  in  supporting  these  wires  there  may  be  a 
leakage  of  current  down  to  the  earth.  The  great  problem 
that  came  about  in  the  transmission  of  this  hydroelectric 
energy  was  to  evolve  some  system  by  which  there  would 
be  no  leakage  from  the  wire  down  to  the  earth.  The 
solution  of  the  problem  came  about  through  the  develop- 
ment of  efficient  insulators,  capable  of  withstanding  these 
high  voltages.  This  illustration  shows  the  latest  insulator 
used  in  the  latest  record  established  in  hydro-electricity, 
the  165-000-volt  line  of  the  Great  Western  Power  Go. 


[Page    Nine] 


Story"  §f  California 


Now,  even  though  this  law  was  discovered  back  as 
early  as  1830  it  was  not  until  almost  three-quarters  of  a 
century  later  that  we  really  began  to  apply  this  informa- 
tion in  harnessing  our  water  power.  California  has  been 
the  pioneer  in  this.  I  remember  as  a  boy  in  Ontario;  in 


hONEL"1""  INDUSTRY 


FARM 


Fig.  3  is  a  sketch  illustrating  a  typical  modern  electric  power 
system  with  its  hydroelectric  generating  project  and  transmission 
line  and  the  distribution  lines  that  carry  the  electric  power  to  the 
users  in  homes  and  offices,  on  the  farm  and  in  the  mine. 

those  days  they  pointed  to  the  longest  high  tension  line 
in  the  world,  and  that  was  the  line  running  from  Ontario 
to  San  Bernardino,  about  twenty-three  miles  at  ten  thou- 
sand volts.  Today  we  transmit  power  at  one  hundred  and 
sixty-five  thousand  volts  over  two  hundred  and  thirty 
miles  and  those  distances  and  voltages  are  constantly  be- 
ing lengthened  and  raised. 

When  we  think  of  water  power  we  usually  think  of 
some  great  Niagara.  In  the  state  of  California,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  we  don't  have  any  great  waterfalls,  but  we 
do  have  great  gorges  in  the  mountains  making  it  possible 
for  us  to  create  an  artificial  waterfall,  as  it  were,  by 


[Page    Ten] 


Electricity's  Basic  Role 


diverting  this  water,  taking  it  out  of  the  stream  and 
taking  it  around  the  mountain  in  a  ditch  at  a  grade  less 
than  the  natural  bed  of  the  stream.  Then,  when  we  build  a 
tunnel,  say  eight  or  ten  miles  long,  we  get  a  difference  in 
elevation  as  much  as  two,  three  or  four  thousand  feet, 
making  it  possible  to  drop  this  water  that  distance. 

Now,  as  to  what  a  horse  power  means.  Suppose 
flowing  in  front  of  us  is  the  stream  shown  in  Fig.  5. 
It  is  winter  time  and  there  are  many  chunks  of  ice, 


Fig.  4  is  a  sketch  of  an  actual  hydroelectric  project,  the  Feather 
River  development  of  the  Great  Western  Power  Company.  Notice 
how  the  water  is  first  stored  in  a  great  artificial  reservoir  formed 
by  a  dam,  and  is  then  carried  by  tunnels  and  streams  to  the  point 
where  it  is  dropped  down  to  the  power  house  for  the  generation 
of  electric  power. 

each  one  measuring  a  foot  each  way,  1  cubic  foot,  and  in 
front  of  our  vision,  we  will  say,  every  second  passes  one 
of  these  chunks  of  ice.  Now,  a  chunk  of  ice  one  foot  by 
one  foot  by  one  foot  weighs  about  sixty-two  and  one-half 
pounds.  Let  that  drop  twelve  feet  and  it  would  represent 
practically  what  a  modern  electric  horse  power  represents 
in  energy.  So,  when  you  go  into  the  mountains  and  see 
a  stream  of  water,  picture  to  yourself  these  chunks  of 


[Page    Eleven] 


Story"  §f  California 


ice,  one  foot  by  one  foot  by  one  foot,  and  picture  that 
every  time  they  drop  twelve  feet  you  have  a  horse  power 
flowing  eternally  for  the  development  of  your  different 
industries  in  California.  That  gives  you  the  fundamen- 
tals of  hydro-electricity. 


Fig.  5.     One  cubic  foot  of  water  per  second  falling  twelve  feet 
represents  the  equivalent  of  one  electrical  horsepower 

Out  West  here  we  have  developed  to  a  stage  that  is 
equaled  nowhere  else  in  America.  We  are  talking  about 
A  B  C's,  so  I  brought  some  ABC  blocks  along.  Let's 
see  how  we  have  developed  out  West.  Look  at  Fig.  6. 
The  single  block  represents  the  unit  development  back 
East.  That  is  what  the  average  citizen  uses  in  steam  and 
electric  power  back  East.  The  average  citizen  out  West 
uses  just  twice  as  much,  as  shown  by  the  two  blocks. 

Let's  take  the  case  of  hydroelectric  development. 
The  amount  the  East  has  developed  hydroelectrically  in 
proportion  to  their  population  is  represented  by  one  block, 
while  out  West  we  have  one,  two,  three,  four,  five,  six 
times  that  of  the  East,  as  shown  in  Fig.  6B. 

Now,  as  wonderful  as  that  may  be,  what  of  the 
future?  What  are  the  possibilities  the  average  citizen 
has  in  regard  to  hydroelectric  energy  in  the  future  ?  Refer 
to  Fig.  6C.  Let  the  one  block  be  the  proposition  back  East. 
Then,  one,  two,  three,  four,  five,  six,  seven,  eight,  nine, 
ten,  eleven  and  multiplied  by  two — twenty-two  times  the 
possibilities  in  the  West  as  compared  to  the  East — so  you 
see  we  live  in  a  hydroelectric  domain  that  is  equaled 
nowhere  in  the  world. 


[Page    Twelve] 


Electricity's  Basic  Role 


A   Western  aggressiveness  in  power  develop- 
•  ment  and  western  progressiveness  in  util- 
izing the  most  desirable  form  of  power  has 
led  to  a  per  capita  development  double  that 
of  the  eastern  states. 

BThe  much  greater 
•  hydroelectric  de- 
velopment in  the  West, 
per  capita,  is  a  quite 
natural  result  of  west- 
ern initiative  and  the 
greater  abundance  of 
available  water  powers. 


CThe  future  electrical  de- 
•  velopment  in  the  West, 
per  unit  of  population,  will 
far  exceed  that  of  the  re- 
mainder of  the  nation,  be- 
cause of  the  great  prepon- 
derance of  yet  undeveloped 
water  powers  which  are  ca- 
pable of  being  economically 
exploited  for  the  benefit  of 
western  industries. 


Fig.    6. 


Representation    of    comparative    electrical    development, 
East  and  West 


[Page    Thirteen] 


Story"  §f  California 


Now,  I  am  going  to  show  some  charts  and  pictures 
that  will  illustrate  some  of  the  wonderful  physical  feats 
that  have  been  accomplished.  You  know  in  harnessing 
this  great  water  power,  our  engineers  have  accomplished 
feats  of  engineering  daring  that  have  been  equaled  no- 


Fig.  7.  Typical  power  development  in  the  western  mountains — the 
Kern  River  Canyon  Plant  of  the  San  Joaquin  Light  and  Power 
Corporation. 

where  else  in  the  world.  I  am  going  to  point  out  just  a 
few  and  then  show  you  some  of  our  industries;  what 
wonderful  things  some  of  our  industries  are  doing  through 
this  giant  force  of  electricity,  and  other  speakers  will 
follow,  showing  you  how  that  connects  with  our  civic  and 
industrial  life. 

Now,  I  have  pointed  out  what  water  power  is.  Fig. 
7  shows  an  actual  application  of  this  idea.  A  reservoir 
has  been  built,  and  the  water  is  brought  from  it  in  a 
tunnel  through  the  mountain  side,  and  then  dropped 
down  to  the  power  house  over  on  the  right.  That  is  where 
the  electric  magnet  exists.  Coming  from  it  are  the  wires 
that  stretch  out  across  our  valleys  to  feed  our  farms,  up 


[Page    Fourteen] 


Electricity's  Basic  Role 


In  Fig.  8,  you  see  a  picture  of  the  West  in  which  these  great  trans- 
mission lines  have  been  mapped.  No  other  place  exists  where 
transmission  lines  are  built  to  such  a  great  extent  of  distribution 
and  such  high  voltage.  There  is  a  solid  chain  of  these  lines  from 
Medford,  Oregon,  down  to  the  Mexican  Border,  and  then  up  into 
Nevada,  a  distance  of  fourteen  hundred  miles.  We  have  one  con- 
nection of  the  Southern  Sierras  Power  Company  which  totals  over 
five  hundred  and  thirty  miles  from  the  eastern  side  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada  Mountains  down  to  the  Mexican  Border — the  longest  trans- 
mission line  in  the  world. 


[Page    Fifteen] 


Story*  gf  California 


into  our  mines,  and  run  the  industries  in  our  cities  and  to 
light  the  homes. 

Let  us  see  what  is  happening  in  the  harnessing  of 
these  forces  of  nature.  In  the  first  place  it  required  the 
building  of  great  dams  such  as  the  genius  of  man  never 
before  attempted.  The  big  one  shown  in  Fig.  9  is  a  dam 


Fig.  9  shows  the  mammoth  Lake  Spaulding  dam,  Pacific  Gas  and 
Electric  Company,  while  under  construction.  This  photograph  very 
clearly  portrays  the  magnitude  of  construction  work  that  is  often 
necessary  to  harness  the  natural  water  power  resources  of  the 
West,  and  indicates  what  great  obstacles  must  sometimes  be  over- 
come. The  building  of  this  great  dam,  for  example,  required  the 
building  of  a  branch  railroad  for  many  miles  through  the  moun- 
tains and  the  transportation  of  supplies  across  deep  canyons  on 
cables  high  in  the  air. 


in  California,  the  Spaulding  Dam,  which  rises  295  feet 
above  the  stream  bed.  Let  me  give  you  an  idea,  in  a 
comical  way,  of  how  much  water  is  actually  contained  in 
such  a  dam.  If  100,000  people  each  drinking  a  quart  of 
water  a  day,  started  drinking  about  the  time  of  Noah, 


[Page    Sixteen] 


Electricity's  Basic  Role 


they  would  have  drained  this  reservoir  dry  about  the  time 
the  whole  country  went  dry  for  another  reason.  But  the 
vision  of  the  West  has  not  ceased  there.  We  find  our 
engineers  today  even  going  far  beyond  that  vision.  We 
hear  it  being  talked  of  by  the  engineers  that  dams  will  be 
built  even  four  and  five  hundred  feet  in  height. 


The  two  giant  hydraulic  power  units  shown  in  Fig.  10,  are  develop- 
ing 25,000  hp.  each,  under  a  head  of  810  feet.  This  is  the  highest 
head  in  the  world  for  water  wheels  of  this  particular  type,  which, 
by  the  way,  were  designed  and  built  in  California.  At  the  time 
they  were  installed,  these  wheels  were  the  largest  ever  installed 
west  of  the  Mississippi. 

The  installation  shown  in  Fig.  10  breaks  a  world's 
record.  It  took  place  under  Mr.  Miller's  supervision,  in 
Kern  River  No.  3  Plant,  where  have  been  installed  two  of 
the  largest  hydroelectric  turbines  in  the  West.  They  were 
put  into  commission  last  month,  so  you  see  we  are  con- 
stantly, as  months  go  by,  expanding  these  records,  making 
new  records,  and  most  all  the  time,  mark  you,  it  is  a  west- 
ern record  that  is  broken  and  by  a  western  person. 


[Page    Seventeen] 


Story  §f  California 


It  is  very  often  necessary  to  stretch  wires  over  a 
great  distance,  for  instance,  across  streams  of  water  and 
over  lofty  canyons.  One  of  the  crossings,  known  as  the 
Carquinez  Crossing,  stood  for  seventeen  years  as  the 
world's  greatest  and  longest  span  of  wire,  almost  three- 


Fig.  11  shows  one  of  the  electric  power  transmission  lines  crossing 
Carquinez  Straits,  San  Francisco  Bay — the  4427-foot  span  of  the 
Pacific  Gas  and  Electric  Company,  which  for  seventeen  years  stood 
as  a  world  record.  Recently  a  second  line  was  hung  across  this 
stretch  of  water — a  span  of  4753  feet  carrying  165,000  volts  for 
the  Great  Western  Power  Company. 

quarters  of  a  mile  in  length.  It  has  been  broken  in  the 
last  year  or  so,  but  it  took  this  precedent  in  California 
to  give  them  the  vision  and  the  courage  to  do  it. 

I  could  go  on  enumerating  the  wonderful  things  that 
have  been  accomplished,  but  I  will  now  allude  to  a  few  of 
the  uses  of  electricity  which  are  even  as  wonderful,  and 
in  many  respects  more  wonderful  than  these  physical 


[Page    Eighteen] 


Electricity's  Basic  Role 


barriers  that  have  been  overcome.  In  the  first  place, 
Electricity  in  the  Home.  Fig.  12  is  the  picture  of  a  build- 
ing that  was  built  in  Los  Angeles  about  a  year  ago,  known 
as  the  Electrical  Home.  Today  electrical  homes  are 
being  put  up  in  different  cities  to  give  a  conception 
of  what  the  modern  electrical  home  can  accomplish. 


Fig.  12  is  one  of  the  numerous  Electrical  Homes  that  have  been 
erected  throughout  the  West  to  drive  home  the  more  extended  use 
of  electricity  in  the  home.  Similar  homes  have  been  demonstrated 
in  San  Francisco,  Oakland,  Sacramento,  and  in  the  Northwest  and 
have  been  visited  by  thousands  of  interested  men  and  women. 


Those  homes  are  electrically  operated'  throughout — 
electric  washing  machines,  electric  toasters,  electric  re- 
frigerators, and  so  on.  But  the  wonderful  thing  about 
California  is  that  we  have  developed  the  use  of  electricity 
in  the  home  as  nowhere  else  in  the  nation.  Comparative 
figures  tell  the  story.  In  1910,  in  the  districts  served  by 
central  stations,  California  had  75%  of  her  homes  wired 
for  electric  service.  In  1920,  83%  of  these  homes  were 
wired  for  service,  while  for  United  States  as  a  whole 
only  35%  of  the  homes  were  wired. 


[Page   Nineteen] 


Story"  §f  California 


Fig.  13  is  typical  of  the  immense  stretches  of  land  in  California 
arid  the  West  that  are  lying  idle  and  non-productive  because  of  the 
lack  of  water  for  irrigation. 


Fig.  14  shows  what  irrigation  by  electric  pumping  will  do  for  idle 
land.  The  San  Joaquin  valley,  as  an  example,  where  this  photo- 
graph was  taken,  owes  much  of  its  present  development  and  pros- 
perity to  the  irrigation  made  possible  by  electric  power. 


[Page    Twenty] 


Electricity's  Basic  Role 


Now  electricity  on  the  farm.  Wonders  have  been  ac- 
complished. Acres  of  idle  bush-covered  land  is  the  ordi- 
nary situation  familiar  to  all  of  us  in  our  barren  lands 
in  the  West.  As  some  one  said  in  traveling  all  day  over 
that  land,  he  met  only  one  inhabitant;  that  was  a  jack- 


One  of  the  greatest  western  accomplishments  is  the  electrification 
of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railroad,  Fig.  15,  and  today 
engineers  are  coming  from  all  over  the  world  to  visit  this  great 
undertaking. 

rabbit  and  he  was  leaving  the  country  as  fast  as  he 
could  run. 

Now,  our  land  may  be  irrigated  by  gravity  system  or 
pumping  the  water.  The  gravity  system  has  been  prac- 
tically completed  in  the  West  so  we  must  rely  on  pumping 
in  the  future. 

Over  a  third  of  the  lands  in  California  are  electrically 
pumped  and  irrigated.  The  agricultural  development  in 
this  state  depends  upon  the  way  we  can  harness  our  water 
power,  to  make  possible  this  great  modern  servant — the 
electrical  pump. 

There  will  be  alluded  to  this  afternoon  the  question 
of  the  use  of  oil  on  our  railroads,  and  we  all  look  forward 
to  railroad  electrification  as  a  possibility  in  the  future. 

[Page    Twenty-one] 


Story*  §f  California 


H 


Fig.  16  shows  one  of  the  numerous  electrically  operated  gold 
dredges  that  are  at  work  in  the  West,  profitably  recovering  gold 
from  gravel  beds  that  previously  were  allowed  to  lie  untouched 
because  there  was  no  other  power  available  that  could  produce  the 
gold  at  a  low  enough  rate.  This  is  the  largest  gold  dredger  in  the 
world.  It  is  electrically  operated  throughout. 

Now,  in  mining.  It  was  in  mining  that  we  found  our- 
selves, and  yet  if  it  were  not  for  electricity  today  our 
mining  would  not  be  in  anything  like  as  good  condition 
as  it  is.  Fig.  16  illustrates  to  you  the  electrically  op- 
erated  gold  dredges  which  today  still  keep  California  in 
the  front  rank  of  gold  production  in  the  United  States, 
making  possible  the  utilization  of  the  old  gold  fields  of 
California,  scraping  up  the  gravel,  and  washing  out  the 
gold  even  though  it  is  in  very  small  quantities,  very  often 
only  six  or  seven  cents  a  yard.  They  turn  out  the  gold  at 
a  cost  of  only  three  cents  a  yard,  through  the  use  of  elec- 
tricity, and  as  I  stated,  make  possible  California's  main 
taining  her  first  position  still  in  the  production  of  gold. 

Other  branches  of  mining  make  equally  important 
demands  upon  electric  power,  over  twenty  per  cent  of  the 
power  sold  by  western  power  companies  being  used  in  the, 
mines. 


[Page    Twenty- two] 


Electricity's  Basic  Role 


Fig.  17  shows  the  sanitary  sealing  machines  in  a  California  fruit 
cannery.  Electricity  plays  a  major  part  in  preparing  this  great 
output  for  the  market.  Individual  motor  drive  with  its  attendant 
freedom  from  shafting  and  its  greater  flexibility  is  the  great 
advantage  of  electricity  in  this  field. 


The  gangs  of  rolls  in  steel  mills,  Fig.  18,  driven  by  single  motors, 
require  a  large  percentage  of  the  power  used  in  the  mills.  This 
photo  shows  a  1500-hp.  motor  driving  a  22-inch  and  18-inch  mill 
table. 


[Page    Twenty-three] 


t3fe  Story  §f  California 


Now,  as  to  some  of  our  other  industries.  We  all 
know  that  the  fruit  packing  industry — the  canning  indus- 
try  is  one  of  our  great  things  here.  Electricity  makes 

possible  the  canning  of  fruit  in  the  best  of  ways.  The 
work  is  all  done  by  machinery  and  a  cleaner  and  more 
economic  production  than  formerly  is  now  possible. 


Fig  19  shows  an  interesting  use  of  electricity  in  the  steel  indus- 
try— an  electric  magnet  for  handling  ingots.  Electric  current  is 
turned  into  the  magnet  and  the  ingots  picked  up.  When  they  have 
been  shifted  to  the  desired  position  the  current  is  turned  off  and 
the  ingots  are  released  by  the  magnet.  Ingots  weighing  hundreds 
of  pounds  are  moved  as  easily  and  quickly  by  the  magnetic  crane 
as  you  or  I  could  move  a  box  of  apples. 


In  the  steel  industry,  which  though  new  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  is  here  to  stay,  a  very  heavy  and  extended 
use  is  made  of  electric  power.  One  mill  alone,  in  San 
Francisco,  has  a  connected  motor  load  of  16,000  hp.,  and 
this  power  is  used  for  every  conceivable  kind  of  work. 
The  operations  in  the  furnace  galleries,  the  moulding  pit, 
ingot  storage  yards,  transportation,  rolling,  cooling,  cut- 
ting and  fabricating  shops  and  all  other  departments, 


[Page    Twenty-four] 


Electricity's  Basic  Role 


depend  completely  on  electricity  for  their  power.  It  is 
interesting  to  know,  also,  that  this  mill  will  be  greatly 
dependent  on  electricity  in  the  railroads,  when  electrifica- 
tion comes,  as  it  is  the  largest  individual  shipper  on  a 
tonnage  basis  in  the  western  states. 

The  question  of  refrigeration  is  a  great  problem  in 
California.  We  must  ship  our  products  to  the  East  in 
iced  cars,  and  electricity  plays  a  part  in  the  making  of  ice. 


The  ice  plant  in  Fig.  20  is  one  of  dozens  of  such  plants  along  the 
railroad  lines  of  the  West.  The  tremendous  problem  of  the  trans- 
portation of  perishable  fruit  and  vegetables  has  brought  the  refrig- 
eration industry  well  to  the  front  among  the  consumers  of  electric 
power  in  the  West.  The  consumption  of  electricity  in  this  industry 
is  very  large,  so  that  the  electric  bill  bears  a  greater  relation  to 
the  costs  of  manufacture  than  is  the  case  in  most  fields.  Electricity 
has  proved  such  an  ideal  motive  power,  however,  that  it  is  very 
generally  used. 


Oil  itself  is  a  fuel  and  yet  this  great  modern  servant, 
electricity,  has  gone  into  the  oil  fields  to  make  it  cheaper 
to  produce  oil,  and  cleaner  than  oil  can  do  it  itself. 

Many  of  our  mountain  lakes  and  the  salt  beds  of  the 
desert  regions  have  valuable  chemical  deposits.  The  pro- 
duction of  the  salts  and  many  other  chemicals  has  been 
made  possible  through  electricity  and  the  chemical  indus- 
try in  these  sections  has  shown  a  tremendous  growth 
during  its  five  years  of  existence. 


[Page  Twenty-five] 


California 


Fig.  21  illustrates  the  economy  of  electricity  in  the  oil  fields. 
Pumping  jacks,  driven  by  single  electric  motors,  pump  oil  from 
dozens  of  wells  surrounding  them  and  do  the  job  at  a  low  cost  and 
without  fire  hazard.  The  jack  shown,  driven  by  a  25-hp.  motor, 
is  pumping  twenty-seven  wells. 


The  plants  shown  in  Fig.  22  are  the  Borosolvay  plants  of  the 
Pacific  Coast  Borax  Company  and  the  Solvay  Process  Company 
at  Searles  Lake,  California.  All  of  this  region  is  rich  in  borax  and 
potash  deposits,  and  electricity  is  used  extensively  in  the  recovery 
process.  Over  11,000,000  kw-hr.  were  used  by  the  chemical  plants 
of  this  vicinity  in  1920. 


[Page    Twenty-six] 


Electricity's  Basic  Role 


I  will  briefly  show  you  in  a  statistical  way  some  of 
the  ways  electricity  operates.  In  the  western  states  14% 
of  the  electric  power  developed  goes  for  lighting  homes; 
26%  goes  toward  operating  railroads;  28%  toward  manu- 
facturing; 11%  toward  agriculture.  In  California  the 


PACIFIC  CENTRAL 


INTERMOUNTAIN 
AND    SOUTH -WEST 


ALL  WESTERN  STATES 

Fig.  23  gives  the  distribution  of  loa,d  of  the  western  power  com- 
panies. California  and  Nevada,  represented  in  the  Pacific  Central 
division,  show  particular  activity  along  the  lines  of  agriculture  and 
manufacturing,  while  Northwest  development  centers  in  manufac- 
turing activities,  and  the  Intermountain  and  Southwestern  districts 
are  especially  well  represented  in  the  mining  field,  with  a  sprinkling 
of  agriculture. 


amount  of  electricity  used  for  agriculture  is  much  more, 
being  17%. 

Now,  as  to  some  of  the  general  proportions,  to  show 
you  what  proportion  of  electricity  is  used  in  the  various 
industries.  You  notice  the  metal  trades  is  first ;  food  pro- 
duction comes  next,  and  so  on  down  the  line,  which  gives 
you  an  idea  as  to  the  proportionate  uses  of  electricity  in 
the  various  industries. 

Now,  as  to  what  a  single  plant  uses.  The  plants  hav- 
ing the  largest  installed  capacity  are  the  steel  manufac- 
turing plants,  as  I  have  said  above.  The  average  plant 
reporting  to  us  in  this  survey  used  almost  ten  thousand 


[Page    T  wen  ty- s  even  ] 


Story*  gf  California 


IS 

10 

£_ 

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\_ 

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\     1     $ 

fh 

l\ 

frv*     §      $ 

£    C:  V      *<         'C 

^ 

>      £ 

\  *& 


1  i 


Fig.   24.     Distribution   of   Manufacturing   Load  —  Seven   Western 
Power  Companies 


1 

1 

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1 

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834 

14DD 

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322 

_,2/5 

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Me^al  Trades  . 

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f^'l.tr.  Fpprf 

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Fig.  25.    Installed  Capacities  of  Motors  in  Average  Plant 


[Page    Twenty-eight] 


Electricity's  Basic  Role 


horsepower.  The  next  industry  is  the  cement  industry. 
Then,  along  down  the  line  is  the  chemical  industry.  I  am 
calling  your  attention  to  the  chemical  industry  to  show 
you  that  in  some  instances,  although  there  is  a  large 
horsepower  installed,  the  relationship  varies  when  you 
come  to  the  actual  power  consumed. 


Kilowatt 


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Metal  frades 
Re.fr/gervtoKs 
Wood  products 
Grain  products 
frii-sc  Food 

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Fig.  26  gives  the  relative  annual  consumption  of  electric  power  by 
the  various  classes  of  western  industrial  plants 


Cement  plants  actually  used  more  power,  although 
the  steel  plants  have  the  largest  installed  capacity.  That 
is  because  they  use  it  continuously  and  the  other  fellow 
only  on  and  off.  The  chemical  industry,  you  notice,  made 
quite  a  step  toward  the  front.  The  chemical  industry  can 
probably  get  a  much  cheaper  rate. 

Another  interesting  way  of  regarding  electric  power 
and  its  value  to  industry  is  to  compare  the  value  of  out- 
put of  any  industry  and  the  kilowatt-hour  consumption 


[Page    Twenty-nine] 


Story  §f  California 


required  in  its  production.  Or,  expressing  it  another  way, 
how  much  the  production  is  in  dollars  and  cents  for  every 
kilowatt-hour  of  electric  power  consumed.  The  meat 
packing  industry  produces  $12.46  worth  of  goods  for 
every  kilowatt-hour  consumed;  fruit  canning,  $11.35; 
dairy  products,  $8.90,  and  so  on.  This  gives  a  conception 
of  how  dollars  and  cents  are  made  for  industries  of  this 
country  by  the  utilization  of  electric  power. 


Meatpacking 

Cdnnedaoods 

Dairy 

PaperproJuck 

Grain 

Textiles 


Fig.  27  is  the  converse  of  Fig.  26,  in  that  it  indicates  the  value 
of  the  output  per  kilowatt-hour  used.  The  average  charge  made 
for  this  kilowatt-hour  at  current  western  rates  is  about  1.3  cents — 
a  very  small  fraction  of  the  total  cost  even  in  those  industries 
using  the  largest  amount  of  power  per  unit  of  output. 


Irrigation  and  pumping  in  the  West  shows  a  decided 
reaction  to  electricity.  Irrigation  by  the  gravity  system 
has  remained  practically  the  same,  but  electrical  pumping 
from  1910  to  1920  took  a  decided  jump  and  has  been 


[Page    Thirty] 


Electricity's  Basic  Role 


ML 

too 

MML  iNDusmts 

J7t*m 

Percent  increase  in  value 

of  output  and  K.YJ.hr.  consu 

iption. 

13  10-  ISIS-  1920 

9437% 

| 

/64% 

too-/. 

IDOia 

1/26% 

v"ue  d/lJl 

'  KW.hr.  Consumption 

. 

1 

i 

1315 

Fig.  28  indicates  how  the  remarkable  growth  in  the  value  of  output 
in  the  metal  industries  has  been  matched  by  the  kilowatt-hour 
consumption.  When  the  difference  in  the  value  of  the  dollar 
between  two  years  is  taken  into  consideration,  it  is  apparent  that 
the  use  of  electricity  has  increased  intensively  as  well  as  extensively 
in  this  period. 


200 

LUMBER  INDUSTRY 

TJI'lo 

Percent  increase  in  vslue 

f  out-put  and  HvJ.hr  consur, 

iption 

ISO 

ISIO-  ISIS  -1320 

.100 

/J2*A 

100% 

OO'lo 

JO 

Value  of  output 

If  Whr  Consumption     38% 

97% 

0 

IS 


ISIS 


IS20 


The  increased  consumption  of  electric  power  in  the  lumber  industry, 
indicated  by  Fig.  29,  is  due  to  its  more  extensive  use  for  operations 
which  were  previously  performed  manually.  The  increased  use  of 
electric  power  has  obviated  the  necessity  of  taking  on  additional 
employes,  even  in  the  face  of  increased  production  requirements. 


going  on  at  an  increasing  rate  ever  since.  This  shows 
very  conclusively  that  the  future  development  of  this 
state  in  agriculture  depends  upon  the  development  of 
these  hydroelectric  resources. 


[Page    Thirty-one] 


Story"  §f  California 


IftlNflO    INpfflffi 

136% 

Ptrctnt  increase  in  i/y/t/e 

f  output  and  ff\v  hr               •  no°/o 

onsumption-  lSiO-/$ts-/S20  H 

143 

\ 

I 

100% 

OO'lo 

H                                              113  'Jo 

Vdlutof  output. 

tfrthr.  Consumption 

I 

1 

1 

| 

| 

1 

1310 

Fig.  30  indicates  a  more  intensive  electrification  in  the  mining  field. 
Despite  the  slump  in  mining  activities  indicated  by  the  1920  output 
figures,  the  use  of  electricity  in  the  mines  reporting  had  materially 
increased.  The  fact  that  the  number  of  men  employed  had  de- 
creased at  a  greater  rate  than  the  output  is  a  confirmation  of  the 
greater  use  of  electrically  operated  machinery  in  the  individual 
mine. 


Ft/MWAfc  /// 


wo 

ACRES  IRRIGATED 


I9ZO 


n 


IZ8,/*3//.f> 


SOO.OOOHF 


1-37,300,000  XM 

Off 
£17  KM tfffS.  PER  dcfiE. 


Fig.  31  shows  clearly  that  almost  the  entire  increase  in  irrigated 
acreage  in  California  has  been  pumped  irrigation.  At  the  present 
time  more  than  one-third  of  all  land  irrigated  in  the  state  is  served 
with  pumped  water.  1920  figures  on  installed  horsepower  are 
based  on  government  estimates — and  indicate  the  tremendous  mar- 
ket for  small  motors  which  has  opened  up  in  this  field. 


[Page    Thirty-two] 


Electricity's  Basic 


CHEMICA1  PLAHTS  KtWVW 

Percent  increase  m  K\tf  hr. 

Consumption. 

1910  •  IS  IS-  1320 

14-00 

_ow 

270% 

\ 

\IOO°/o 

Fig.  32. 


1910  Wil 

Increased  Use  of  Power  in  Chemical  Plants  Reporting 


Charts  which  show  how  electricity  started  and  devel- 
oped in  ten  years  in  various  industries  are  decidedly  inter- 
esting. In  the  metal  industry  in  1910  there  was  a 
hundred  per  cent  product  and  a  hundred  per  cent  use  of 
electricity  ;  in  1915  the  use  of  electricity  increased  to  164 
per  cent  and  jumped  up  to  578  per  cent  in  1920. 


Lumber 


Wood. 
Products 


Food 
Products 


Leather 


Gds  Mfy 


Fig.  33.     Distribution  of  Isolated  Plants 


[Page    Thirty-three] 


Story*  gf  California 


The  same  thing  in  the  lumber  industry.  It  seemed  to 
fall  up  to  1915  but  from  then  on  the  increase  was  marked, 
and  we  record  the  electrification  of  the  lumber  industry 
as  one  of  the  great  things  which  is  going  to  take  place  in 
the  northwest  in  the  next  decade. 

The  mining  industry;  how  does  electricity  help  out 
the  mining  industry,  which  we  know  is  in  a  slump  at  the 
present  time?  A  steady  increase  took  place  through  1915 
and  even  in  1920,  when  the  output  fell  off,  electricity 
came  to  the  aid  and  today  is  making  possible  the  salvag- 
ing of  what  we  can  in  the  mining  industry. 

The  chemical  industry,  already  mentioned,  is 
another  one  that  has  had  a  wonderful  growth  during  the 
past  few  years,  because  of  the  economies  and  efficiency 
possible  in  the  use  of -electric  power. 


/eeo 


i/,S 


TO  P£HC£NT 

POPULATION 

EL£Y£M 


/9OO 


/92O 


U.S. 


laao 


1900 


BANK  CLEARINGS 


U.S. 


/900 


1920 


I9OO 


1920 


Fig.  34.     Comparative  Growth  of  Eleven  Western  States  and 
United  States 


[Page    Thirty-four] 


Electricity's  Basic  Role 


This  will  give  you  an  idea  as  to  how  we  are  growing 
out  West  as  compared  with  the  East.  The  only  thing  we 
have  gone  backward  in  is  mining  which  has  experienced 
quite  a  slump  at  the  present  time. 


U.S. 


/88O          I9OO  I92.Q 


1920 


Fig.  35.     Comparative  Growth  of  Eleven  Western  States  and 
United  States 


[Page  Thirty-five] 


t3fe  Storjr  tf  California 


We  sent  out  four  thousand  questionnaires  to  indus- 
tries to  find  out  who  was  serving  them  and  we  found  out 
that  our  great  public  servant  in  the  West  was  serving 
practically  every  one  of  those  four  thousand.  Only  about 
fifty  were  being  served  by  their  own  individual  power 
plants  and  most  of  those  were  in  the  lumber  industry  or 
in  the  mining  industry  in  some  isolated  place  where  public 
service  stations  cannot  get  to  them.  Fig.  33,  illustrating 
this,  will  give  you  an  idea  how  broadcast  our  great  public 
service  industry  is  here  in  the  West  in  serving  our  needs. 


GROWTH  OF  Bis/c  /NDusr#/ES 
ELECTRIC/TY  //v 


MEASURED  BY  THE  MLL/E 
PRODUCTS,  M4NUFACTU/?/NG. 
AGRICULTURE  wo  MW/NG. 
1880    TO 


Fig.  36  clearly  portrays  the  growth  in  industrial  importance  which 
California,  as  typical  of  the  western  states  in  development,  has 
made.  Mining  was  the  major  activity  of  early  years,  soon  supple- 
mented and  outdistanced  by  agriculture.  From  1880  to  the  present, 
manufacturing  activities  have  shown  a  growing  importance,  now 
ranking  first  in  the  value  of  output.  The  past  decade  has  shown 
the  greatest  proportional  increase  in  this  field. 

You  can  see  by  this  chart  that  the  development  of 
California  industrially  is  certainly  in  a  very  excellent 
shape,  so  far  as  government  statistics  are  concerned. 

The  remarkable  growth  which  the  West  has  made, 
in  every  line  of  endeavor,  would  seem  to  indicate  that 
electricity  is  a  vitalizing  force  in  our  daily  life.  In  popu- 


[Page    Thirty-six] 


Electricity's  Basic  Role 


lation,  assessed  valuation,  bank  clearings  and  business 
transactions,  farm  and  factory  production  and  kindred 
lines,  the  increase  in  the  past  few  decades  has  been  very 
impressive.  But  it  remains  for  the  electrical  industry 
to  run  far  ahead  of  any  other  and  to  pave  the  way  for 
the  more  rapid  increases  in  the  dependent  industries. 


^CREASE 'IN  Mft/OVS  ELEMENTS 
/ND/CATE   CALIfOffMA'S  GROWTH. 


Electric 

ftyutetion 

Assessed 'Hafoe  offt-afterty 

Banff  C fear  ings 

Acres  /rrtgjfecf 

Mumber  of  factories 

Number  of  Homes 


Fig.  37  shows  how  closely  the  growth  curves  of  population,  assessed 
values,  manufactured  products,  acres  irrigated  and  other  features 
of  western  development  follow  the  same  general  curve  as  the 
growth  of  electrical  power  output  in  this  region,  demonstrating  the 
close  inter-relation  of  this  advance.  Figures  of  per  cent  increase 
show  an  even  more  rapid  growth  in  the  electrical  field,  indicating 
an  even  greater  use  of  power  per  unit  of  other  activities. 


In  closing,  I  want  to  take  up  one  other  vital  phase  of 
our  life,  population,  and  in  doing  so  to  project  a  look  into 
the  future  to  see  what  it  holds  for  us.  We  very  well 
know  that  population  and  electric  power  are  closely  re- 
lated, but  that  while  electric  power  must  depend  on  popu- 
lation for  an  outlet,  population  is  even  more  dependent 
on  electric  power  for  growth.  In  other  words,  power 
must  be  on  the  job  or  available  before  population  can 
increase  to  any  great  extent. 


[Page    Thirty-seven] 


Story*  §f  California 


California,  as  one  of  the  largest  states,  showed  the 
fastest  rate  of  growth  of  any  in  its  class  during  the  last 
census  decade.  In  view  of  the  possibilities  of  individual 
achievement  and  community  growth  in  this  great  empire 
in  the  making,  through  the  benefit  of  unequalled  hydro- 
electric resources,  this  rate  should  be  exceeded  in  the 
next  few  years  to  come.  But  even  holding  its  growth  to 
the  rate  at  which  it  is  now  traveling,  California  will  have, 
by  1950,  a  population  of  10,000,000  people. 


10,000,000 -T- 


TEN 


POPULATION  CURVE 


1 


CALIFORNIA. 
J850    TO     &5Q. 

tfate  of  increase  each  fen 


7,000.000 


-S.000000 


1850    I860      1870     #80     1810     1100     /I/O      1120      1130     /9W    /ISO 


The  population  curve  of  California,  Fig.  38,  shows  that  there  has 
been  a  steady  increase  in  population  during  each  decade.  The 
growth  during  the  last  two  ten-year  periods  has  been  markedly 
faster  than  for  the  previous  years,  and  the  present  rate  of  increase 
of  forty-four  per  cent  is  not  unlikely  to  be  maintained  for  some 
years  to  come.  It  is  on  this  basis,  therefore,  that  the  above  curve 
has  been  computed. 

This  is  a  truly  marvelous  accomplishment,  but  it  will 
surely  not  be  attained  without  the  great,  widespread 
assistance  of  electricity  as  a  motive  power.  I  urge  you  to 


[Page    Thirty-eight] 


Electricity's  Basic  Role 


guard  jealously  the  health  of  this  industry.  In  view  of 
the  possibility  of  the  enactment  of  laws  that  would  hinder 
this  wonderful  development,  I  leave  with  you  the  same 
message  that  St.  Paul  gave  to  the  Thessalonians  1900 
years  ago,  ' Therefore,  my  brothers,  let  us  not  sleep  as  do 
others,  but  let  us  watch  and  be  thoughtful." 


Over  350,000  hp.  are  to  be  added  to  the  capacity  of  western  power 
companies  during  1922,  according  to  schedules  announced  by  the 
companies  themselves.  This  peaceful  scene  is  on  Hat  Creek,  Cal- 
ifornia, just  below  the  Hat  Creek  No.  2  power  house,  part  of  the 
great  Pit  river  development  of  the  Pacific  Gas  and  Electric  Com- 
pany, now  under  way.  This  development  will  eventually  bring  in 
575,000  hp.  which  will  be  transmitted  to  San  Francisco  at  the  record 
breaking  voltage  of  220,000  volts. 


[Page    Thirty-nine] 


Story"  §f  California 


The  Future  of  California  Power 

BY  H.  G.  BUTLER 
Former  Power  Commissioner,  State  of  California 

THE  safest — in  fact  the  only  way  to  forecast  Califor- 
nia conditions  is  to  say  that  if  the  factors  which  have 
thus  far  forced  industry  ahead  remain  unchanged,  the 
future  can  be  foretold  mathematically  with  tolerable 
accuracy.  The  first  thing  needed  is  a  knowledge  of  what 
the  facts  are;  then  an  examination  of  these  facts,  which 
are  few  and  readily  analyzed. 

From  1913  to  1920  the  average  horsepower  used  in 
California  grew  from  301,000  to  549,000,  as  each  year 
during  the  last  five  years  the  demand  has  averaged  more 
than  a  10  per  cent  increase  over  that  of  the  previous  year. 

In  1920  the  peak  load  on  the  plants  of  the  California 
power  companies  was  some  893,000  horsepower,  with  the 
plants  in  the  northern  portion  of  the  state  carrying  a  load 
which  left  them  no  margin  of  safety  whatever.  The  com- 
panies in  the  south  had  a  slight  surplus,  but  taking  the 
two  together  the  peak  could  be  met  only  by  using  all 
available  equipment  to  a  much  higher  degree  than  is  nor- 
mally safe  in  operation.  This  893,000  horsepower  of 
1920,  then,  can  be  taken  as  the  maximum  peak  capacity 
of  the  plants  in  existence  at  that  time,  and  the  rate  of 
growth  for  the  past  five  years — 10  per  cent — as  the 
normal  growth. 

In  the  fall  of  1920  there  were  under  construction  in 
the  state,  plants  which  would  increase  the  generating 
capacity  about  386,000  horsepower.  By  August  of  this 
year,  when  the  peak  load  period  for  1921  is  reached,  some 
190,000  horsepower  will  have  been  added  to  the  capacity 
available  in  1920,  and  the  peak  capacity  of  the  intercon- 
nected companies  will  be  approximately  1,083,000  horse- 
power. Estimating  the  peak  load  for  this  year  from  the 
average  increase  for  the  past  five  years,  it  will  be  about 
980,000  horsepower.  The  reserve  for  the  year  will  be 
103,000  horsepower,  which  means  that  after  all  the  hydro- 
electric power  is  utilized  356,000  horsepower  of  steam, 
78  per  cent  of  the  total  steam  capacity,  will  have  to  be 
pressed  into  service. 


[Page    Forty] 


California  Power's  Future 


Before  the  peak  load  of  1922  is  reached  an  additional 
capacity  of  127,000  horsepower  now  under  construction 
will  have  been  added,  so  a  peak  load  of  1,210,000  horse- 
power could  be  carried,  while  the  estimated  peak  load  will 
be  1,084,000  horsepower,  a  reserve  for  that  year  of  126,- 
000  horsepower,  or  31  per  cent  of  the  steam. 


GROWTH  OF  ELECTRIC 


STATIONS 


IN  //  WESTERN  STXTES. 


PR 'i MARY  HORSE  POWER 

INSTALLED  //V 

CENTRAL 


,00,000 


Ij800,000 


1902 


1907 


I9IZ 


1917       I9ZO 


Steady  and  substantial  as  has  been  the  development  of  electric 
power  generating  plants,  and  particularly  those  of  hydroelectric 
power,  it  has  not  been  fast  enough  to  keep  up  with  the  demands 
of  industry.  Notice  how  great  has  been  the  demand  on  the  steam 
stations,  Fig.  39,  during  the  last  few  years.  With  a  diminishing 
supply  of  oil  available,  water  power  must  take  over  an  even 
greater  share  of  this  rapidly  growing  load. 


By  the  summer  of  1923  one  more  plant  will  have 
been  completed  and  the  figures  stand:  peak  capacity 
1,223,000  horsepower;  probable  peak  load  1,200,000  horse- 
power; reserve  22,600  horsepower,  too  small  to  speak 
about. 


[Page    Forty-one] 


Story"  §f  California 


Late  in  1923  the  Hetch  Hetchy  plant  of  66,000  horse- 
power should  be  completed.  The  peak  capacity  of  the 
state  in  1924  will  then  be  1,289,000  horsepower,  while  the 
peak  load  will  be  1,325,000  horsepower.  The  generating 
capacity  will  lack  37,000  horsepower  of  carrying  the  load. 

If  the  estimate  is  extended  one  year  further,  the  peak 
will  have  grown  to  1,464,000  horsepower,  while  the  capac- 
ity has  not  increased,  and  the  power  plants  of  the  state 
will  fall  175,000  horsepower  short  of  meeting  the  demand. 


*w — 


-tw 


Ou 


fuL 


_Lood 


#*• 

9/iiirt 


-U6& 


AcVu«.l 

CA 


A       C 


«i 

MPANllES 


tm 


lUM 
t 

\m 


-M 


•m 


m-\ 


-w 


1 


-w 


1w  n. 


isif  iaf  iw  m 


/w 


Fig.  40  gives  in  more  detail  the  relative  situation  of  load  and  cap- 
acity, besides  projecting  the  probable  requirements  a  number  of 
years  into  the  future.  The  related  curves  for  installed  capacity  and 
maximum  possible  output  are  based  accurately  on  the  data  given 
by  the  fifteen  California  companies  interviewed,  and  the  curve  is 
carried  into  the  future  in  line  with  the  announced  plans  of  these 
companies.  The  load  curve  is  made  in  accordance  with  what  has 
been  found  to  be  the  present  situation,  namely,  a  consistent  load 
increase  of  10%  yearly.  While  this  increase  is  very  likely  to  be 
greater  in  the  coming  years,  the  10%  increase  curve  shows  what 
the  power  developments  will  have  to  be  to  keep  up  with  it. 


[Page    Forty-two] 


California  Power 's  Future 


These  statistics  can  be  summarized  thus:  In  1925 
the  386,000  horsepower  which  was  under  construction  in 
the  fall  of  last  year  will  have  been  entirely  absorbed,  and 
the  resources  will  be  175,000  horsepower  short  of  require- 


ES  BASED 
GENERATED  w  /32Q. 


An  effective  way  of  emphasizing  the  growth  of  the  hydroelectric 
power  industry  of  the  West  is  to  graphically  compare  it  with  that 
of  the  entire  nation,  state  by  state.  Fig.  41  shows  how  the  United 
States  would  look  if  the  area  of  the  states  were  proportioned  to 
the  number  of  kilowatt-hours  generated  by  water  power  during 
1920.  New  York,  with  its  nearly  completed  Niagra  Falls  develop- 
ment is  first,  but  California,  just  getting  well  under  way  in  hydro- 
electric development,  is  second  and  is  followed  closely  by  Wash- 
ington and  Montana.  Of  the  nation  as  a  whole,  the  section  west 
from  the  Eocky  Mountains  generated  nearly  40  per  cent  of  the 
total  amount. 


ments,  even  if  all  the  steam  plants  are  used  to  the  limit. 
In  other  words,  in  four  years  the  power  companies  of  the 
state,  if  they  are  to  meet  needs  in  the  future  as  great  in 
proportion  as  those  they  have  met  in  the  past,  must  plan 


[Page   Forty-three] 


Story  gf  California 


for,  finance,  construct,  and  place  in  operation  three  and 
one-third  such  plants  as  Caribou,  or  two  and  two-thirds 
plants  of  the  capacity  of  Hetch  Hetchy. 

These  figures  presuppose  perfect  interconnections 
and  a  complete  utilization  of  the  power  available  to  every 
company.  If  at  any  time  there  is  to  be  a  local  surplus 
which  is  not  used,  the  figures  must  be  correspondingly 
increased.  Bear  in  mind  that  only  power  plants  that  are 
now  actually  under  construction  have  been  considered, 


CAL/FOffNM'5  ELECT ff/CJL 


1920. 


/NS7XLLA77OMS. 


1902 


C3 

*  -  < 


1=1 


<f  08,000,000 


ASSESSED  faw£ 


IWZ 


Fig.  42  shows  that  t/ie  electrical  industry  ranks  high  among  the 
industries  of  the  West,  even  when  considered  solely  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  actual  investment  involved.  Progress  figures  indicate 
a  growth  which  has  been  more  rapid  than  that  of  other  western 
development  as  reflected  in  the  figures  of  assessed  property  values. 


and  all  the  larger  companies  have  programs  calling  for 
additional  construction  in  the  near  future. 

Several  estimates  have  been  made  of  the  limits  to 
which  California's  water  power  can  be  economically  de- 
veloped. Although  these  estimates  have  all  been  based 
on  the  same  data,  the  modifying  factors  which  have  been 
introduced  have  resulted  in  what  are  practically  independ- 
ent estimates.  The  most  conservative  and  reliable  esti- 


[Page    Forty-four] 


California  Power's  Future 


mates  range  from  5,000,000  to  7,000,000  horsepower.  It 
is  probably  safe  to  say  that  when  the  state  has  developed 
to  the  extent  of  6,000,000  horsepower,  the  economic  limit 
will  have  been  reached. 

If  the  present  rate  of  increase  is  continued,  in  1941, 
twenty  years  from  now,  this  6,000,000  horsepower  will 
have  been  entirely  absorbed.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  far- 


GROWTH  GOES  HAND  ,«  HAND 

W/TH  /NWSTftML  GROWTH,  NCAL/FOf?NM. 


or 


SOLD 


1102 


Or  /MXtSTffML   PRODUCTS'  SOLD  /?00  (8  /%V. 

fMa*u/*ctar,ng,  S/ncuffure  £  Mmivf) 

IWO 


L_ 


Comparison  in  the  growth  of  sales  of  the  electrical  industry  com- 
pared with  all  industry  in  the  West,  Fig.  43,  shows  the  healthy 
condition  in  this  field,  which  is  increasing  at  a  faster  rate  then 
almost  any  other  line  of  business. 


seeing  men — men  who  are  familiar  with  the  power  situa- 
tion and  are  entirely  practical  —  are  already  looking 
beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  state  for  power  which  can 
be  developed  for  use  in  California  as  well  as  in  adjacent 
states  ? 

Bearing  in  mind  that  if  the  present  rate  of  growth 
continues,  there  is  no  use  in  projecting  the  power  load 
beyond  the  year  1941  without  looking  to  the  Colorado 
River  to  the  east,  the  Columbia  and  the  other  streams  in 
Washington  and  in  Oregon  to  the  north, — which  means 
that  we  are  considering  not  California  but  the 

«.;.  •'-'•'  !->        ;  !.  i  -,'  >J  ,' 


[  Page    Forty-five] 


Story*  gf  California 


West, — it  is  necessary  to  analyze  the  factors  which  are 
now  making  for  growth  to  see  what  the  prospects  are  of 
maintaining  the  present  rate  until  the  limit  of  economical 
development  has  been  reached. 

The  main  uses  of  electricity  can  be  roughly  classified 
as  mining,  agricultural,  manufacturing,  transportation, 
and  domestic.  All  of  these  five  classes  are  more  or  less 
interdependent,  but  all  of  them  are  not  capable  of  indefi- 
nite expansion. 

It  is  entirely  possible  that  with  the  working  out  of 
the  fields  available  for  gold  dredging,  the  mining  load  will 
be  no  greater  ten  years  from  now  than  it  is  today,  and  it 
may  even  decrease.  The  use  of  power  in  agriculture  will 
some  day  reach  a  limit  because  neither  the  new  acreage 
capable  of  cultivation  nor  the  water  to  apply  to  it  is  inex- 
haustible. But  that  limit  will  not  be  reached  in  twenty 
years,  although  the  rate  of  increase  may  be  lessened. 
With  manufacturing,  however,  there  may  be  said  to  be  no 
limit,  or  if  there  is  a  limit,  that  it  is  measured  by  the 
power  supply.  Transportation  depends  directly  upon 
population  and  the  product  of  mines,  farms,  and  manufac- 
turing plants.  Its  use  of  electricity  will  grow  as  they 


Year                   Hydroelectric  Steam  Total 

1910 800,000  277,300  1,077,300 

1911 886,910  324,690  1,211,600 

1912 943,010  412,220  1,355,230 

1S13 1,051,540  467,251  1,618,791 

1914 1,175,800  512,870  1,688,670 

1915 1,332,430  542,580  1,875,010 

1916 1,433,050  545,200  1,978,250 

1917 1,566,390  554,680  2,121,070 

1918 1,673,350  558,800  2,232,150 

1919 1,701,546  619,344  2,320,890 

1920 1,826,164  671,586  2,497,750 

1921 2,116,500  742,350  2,858,860 

1922 2,366,650  823,740  3,190,390 


1923 

1924 

1925 

1926 

1927 


2,728,670  861,330  3,590,000 

2,957,900  911,590  3,869,490 

3,210,040  943,760  4,153,800 

3,352,530  970,570  4,323,100 

3,630,280  973,260  4,603,540 


1928 3,978,000         978,620         4,956,620 

1929 4,177,740         978,620         5,156,360 

1930 4,370,770         981,305         5,352,075 

Fig.  44  given  in  tabular  form  information  similar  to  that  given 
in  chart  form  in  Fig.  39.  In  addition  however,  it  gives  the  estim- 
ated tables  of  steam  and  hydroelectric  capacity  for  each  year  up 
to  1930,  based  on  the  proposed  developments  of  the  privately 
owned  public  utilities. 


[Page    Forty-six] 


California  Power's  Future 


grow,  after  it  takes  the  first  leap  and  substitutes  the  elec- 
tric motor  for  the  steam  engine — a  thing  that  will  cer- 
tainly be  done  within  the  next  few  years.  Domestic 
consumption,  which  is  a  function  of  population,  will  keep 
a  step  or  two  in  advance  of  the  growth  of  all  industry  as 


4250,000.000 

REAL  ESTATE  ,ETC. 


THE  BILLION  DOLLAR  PROGRAM 


$132,500,000 


OVERHEAD 

SYSTEM 


POLES    AND 

HXTURES 


$71,750,000 
POWCR'EQUIPMCNT 


$56,25O,OOO 

LINE  TRANSFORMERS 
AND    DCVICCS 


1 5 1,75O,OOO 

SUBSTATION  EQUIPMENT 


441.100,000 
STRUCTURES 


132,250,000 
METERS 


$28, 400,OOO 
MISCELLANEOUS 


What  this  great  construction  means  to  various  other  industries 
is  portrayed  in  Fig.  45.  The  work  which  is  contemplated  during 
the  present  decade  will  amount  in  total  figures  to  close  to  one 
billion  dollars.  To  whom  this  huge  sum  will  go  is  shown  in  this 
chart. 

long  as  new  appliances  continue  to  make  power  more  and 
more  a  necessity  in  the  home. 

The  ever-increasing  cost  of  the  fuels  and  the  uncer- 
tainty as  to  where  these  mounting  costs  will  stop  is  strong 
enough  to  compel  manufacturers  to  locate  where  hydro- 
electric power  is  available. 

If  this  brief  analysis  is  correct,  the  sequence  of 
events  in  the  process  of  building  up  and  growing  is,  first 
the  power,  then  more  factories,  more  transportation,  and 


[Page    Forty-seven] 


Story*  §f  California 


more  domestic  consumers  to  use  it.  But  the  power  must 
be  first.  A  slump  in  development — a  cessation  in  the 
building  of  power  plants  for  even  one  year — will  be  at 
once  reflected  in  a  slowing  down  of  the  industrial  growth 


COMPAf?AT/V£  GftOWTH  rtGUffES 

FOff 

MfcsTEftA/  STXTES. 

THESE  S//OHS  HS//JT  /9/0  ro  /9*O  /MS  MEANT. 

/TE/*f 

TOTAL  /*/c/re*sE 

5^ 

Investment  m£7ectrtcfbwer/nsfa//af/ons 

$509,000,000 

/8/Z 

Installed  //.fm  Centra!  Stations 

tf?0,000  //.f 

/33Z 

Electr/atfgenfrjfed  Jy/fyfi/tc  (/fi/tf/es 

5,100,000,000  KWk 

Z357. 

Total  number  of  ftowes  (fst.) 

i20,000  homes 

?8Z 

Number  of  //owes  £/ecfrifiecf 

700,  000  homes 

im 

Ftybufaf/on  served 

£075,000 

30Z 

fares  /rr/feted  (&fi  forty) 

/,330,000  Acres 

3?Z 

Acres  /rrifafetf  fy  FfrffTfi/ntf  (Gfif.wfy) 

/  ,050,000  Acres 

310Z 

Number  of  fee  f  ones  ojberj//n# 

/5JOO 

S6Z 

f%rjor?s  e/nfi/ofetfin  factories 

335,000 

17Z 

AnnusI  far/??  Crofo  Cfst) 

-$700.000,000 

£007* 

Annual  ftwfocf  ion-  jfowfac  fanes 

*Z,Z50,  000,000 

I87Z 

Annual  M/nersf  ftvd/c  fro/?  fatf&fJ 

*  'j7J,000,000 

/42% 

Totif^nk  C/ejr/xfr 

*KJS3,000.000 

£70  Z 

/tssesserf  tefae  eS/Jtf  /=rv/>erf/ 

?5,8f/,  000,000 

WZ 

NOTE  THE  INCREASE  M/&TE  ^LECT^/C/TY  HELPS  / 

The  cross  section  of  any  community  remains  practically  constant, 
changing  only  with  the  slow  modifications  of  custom  which  are 
perceptible  only  from  decade  to  decade.  In  other  words,  to  meet 
the  needs  of  every  additional  100  inhabitants  in  the  West,  about 
the  same  investment  in  factories,  agricultural  development,  mining 
activity,  etc.,  must  be  maintained.  These  factories,  farms  and 
mines  must  have  the  electrical  power  available  for  their  require- 
ments— or  they  cannot  be  developed.  The  story  of  the  basic  rela- 
tionship of  electricity  to  western  growth  is  illustrated  by  Fig.  46. 


[Page    Forty-eight] 


California  Power's  Future 


of  the  state.  Let  there  be  a  failure  to  develop  for  several 
years,  let  a  power  shortage  during  the  summer  become 
the  normal  thing  rather  than  the  unusual  thing,  and  in- 
dustry and  agriculture  will  stand  still.  If  the  use  of 
electric  energy  has  grown  at  the  rate  of  10  per  cent  a  year 
on  a  sellers'  market,  and  it  has  for  the  past  four  years, 
can  any  one  doubt  that  it  would  make  even  a  better  show- 
ing if  there  were  to  be  a  buyers'  market? 


1O  50 


975 


900 


300 


A2&. 


275 


600 


;z 


/so 


3JS 


7* 


50 


i 


/ftO  1912  /9/V 1916  lilt 


The  population  of  California  as  shown  in  Fig.  47,  compared  to  the 
number  of  consumers  in  that  state  over  a  twenty-year  period, 
shows  that  the  demand  for  electricity  will  not  increase  in  direct 
ratio  to  the  population,  but  at  a  somewhat  greater  rate,  owing  to 
the  fact  that  fewer  homes  will  remain  unelectrified  and  a  greater 
proportion  of  the  farms  and  factories  will  use  electricity  as  the 
electrical  idea  continues  to  spread. 


The  whole  matter  can  be  boiled  down  to  this.  The 
market  will  be  here.  How  about  the  power  ?  The  answer 
is  that  the  power  will  be  developed  if  money  can  be  bor- 
rowed to  build  with.  The  amount  needed  at  the  present 
time  is  something  like  $32,000,000  per  annum.  If  costs 
remain  the  same  it  will  be  larger  each  year  because  the 
growth  is  compounding  and  the  more  expensive  plants 
remain  to  be  built. 


[Page    Forty-nine] 


StorjT  §f  California 


Obviously  these  sums  cannot  be  secured  in  California 
alone.  It  is  essential  that  money  from  the  East  be  avail- 
able to  supplement  what  can  be  raised  at  home.  During 
the  last  two  years  the  stocks  and  bonds  of  California 
power  companies  have  found  a  market  sufficient  to  permit 
the  construction  of  400,000  horsepower  of  new  capacity, 
and  they  have  never  been  in  better  standing  than  they 
are  today — an  indication  that  investors  here  and  else- 
where have  confidence  that  their  security  is  ample  and  a 
fair  rate  of  return  will  be  permitted  them. 


Recreation  sites  are  one  of  the  beneficial  by-products  of  hydro- 
electric development.  A  delightful  summer  resort  on  Huntington 
Lake,  one  of  the  Southern  California  Edison  Company's  projects. 


[Page    Fifty] 


Necessity  of  Financing 


Power  Development  Requires 
Adequate  Financing 

BY  WIGGINTON  E.  CREED 
President,  Pacific  Gas  &  Electric  Company 

IN  hearing  of  the  industrial  future  of  this  state, 
I  am  reminded  of  the  great  shock  I  experi- 
enced in  1900  on  returning  from  the  East.  It 
came  from  the  fact  that  I  had  seen  the  east- 
ern skyline  dotted  with  smoke-stacks,  the  evidence 
of  industry,  and  when  I  reached  California  I  missed 
those  lofty  stacks.  But  when  I  came  back  from  the 
East  last  may  I  could  then  with  satisfaction  compare 
our  skyline  with  the  eastern  skyline;  I  could  compare 
those  smoke-stacks  in  Indiana  Harbor,  Gary  and  the 
other  great  industrial  centers  which  one  can  see  from  the 
train  windows  with  our  great  transmission  lines  which 
I  saw  from  one  end  to  the  other  of  the  state  of  California. 
There  was  brought  home  to  me  the  great  progress  that 
has  been  made  in  California  as  the  result  of  our  skyline 
being  filled  with  steel  towers,  transmission  lines  and  our 
great  network  of  distribution  lines. 

The  electrical  industry  has  been  working  a  revolu- 
tion in  California  and  in  the  world,  a  revolution  improving 
our  social  and  our  economic  position.  This  general  state- 
ment will  be  full  of  meaning  to  you  when  you  reflect  that 
here  in  California  the  electric  energy  generated  last  year, 
over  three  billion  kilowatt-hours,  was  the  equivalent  of 
the  labor  of  ten  million  men  for  one  year,  and  that  the 
cost  of  that  energy  was  less  than  one-half  of  one  per  cent 
of  a  three-dollar-a-day  wage.  This  general  statement 
will  mean  more  to  you  when  you  reflect  that  in  the 
country  as  a  whole  electric  energy  saved  the  consumption 
of  twenty-five  million  tons  of  coal  which  it  would  have 
required  seventy  thousand  men  to  mine;  it  will  mean 
more  to  you  when  you  reflect  that  we  are  merely  on  the 
threshold  of  the  use  of  electrical  energy  in  our  social  life, 
and  in  the  home. 

Electricity  is  the  most  efficient  power  in  the  world. 
It  is  bound  not  only  to  strengthen  and  improve  our  eco- 
nomic position,  but  above  all  to  work  wonders  for  the 

[Page    Fifty- one] 


StoryT  §f  California 


comfort  and  convenience  and  safety  of  mankind.  It  seems 
to  me  that  the  electrical  industry  deserves  your  confi- 
dence as  to  its  ability  to  carry  forward  the  great  work 
facing  us  when  you  consider  its  accomplishments.  The 
electrical  industry  from  1902  to  the  end  of  1917  reduced 


ELECTRICAL  US 


RELATIVE  SIZE  OF  II -WESTERN  STATE* 


AND  /ILL  OTHER  STATES,  based  on  Me 


P£R  CJP/TA  PffODUCr/0/V  or 


§TP?N  SlTATES 


Fig.  48  tells  what  shape  the  state  divisions  of  our  nation  would 
assume  if  the  respective  areas  were  based  on  the  production  of 
electrical  energy  per  capita.  As  production  is  a  direct  indication 
of  consumption,  we  quickly  see  how  much  more  extensively  the 
Westerner  uses  electric  power. 


the  average  cost  of  electric  energy  more  than  one-half 
what  the  average  cost  was  in  1902.  There  was  a  slight 
increase  in  average  cost  from  1917  to  1920,  but  the  aver- 
age cost  at  the  end  of  1920  was  one-half  of  what  the 
average  cost  of  electric  energy  was  in  1902.  There  is 
today  generated  about  four  times  as  much  electric  energy 
per  single  employe  in  the  power  plant  as  there  was  gen- 
erated in  1902 — a  great  tribute  to  the  ability  of  our 
American  scientific  men  and  our  American  engineers. 


[Page    Fifty-two] 


Necessity  of  Financing 


The  position  of  the  electrical  industry  in  the  West 
and  the  progress  which  has  been  made  in  its  development 
is  best  shown  by  pertinent  charts. 

The  first  chart,  Fig.  48,  is  that  showing  the  relative 
size  of  the  eleven  Western  States  and  the  rest  of  the 
country  in  point  of  per  capita  production  of  electric  power. 
You  will  notice  how  far  eastward  the  boundary  line  of  the 
eleven  Western  States  moves  in  that  comparison. 

The  next  chart,  Fig.  49,  shows  the  relative  size  of 
the  eleven  Western  States  on  the  basis  of  the  per  capita 


RELA  TIVE  S/ZE  OF  //  WEST/ERN  STATES 
^D  ALL  gn£8£MIES.  *******  a* 


Per  Cajbit*  Production  of  HrPXO-jELECTR/C  POWER 


How  much  greater  the  Western  production  of  electricity  by  water 
power  is  than  that  of  the  rest  of  the  nation,  is  shown  in  Fig.  49. 
Nothing  more  clearly  indicates  the  progressiveness  of  the  public 
utilities  in  utilizing  Western  power  resources. 


consumption  of  hydroelectric  power  only,  eliminating 
steam  power,  and  again  you  will  see  how  far  eastward  the 
line  has  moved. 

The  chart  following,  Fig.  50,  is  a  most  interesting 
one.     It  shows  the  relative  size  of  the  eleven  Western 


[Page    Fifty-three] 


Story*  gf  California 


States  and  all  other  states  based  on  the  per  capita  water 
power  resources  and,  you  will  notice,  the  line  moves  even 
farther  East.  The  chart  illustrates  in  a  graphic  way  the 
point  made  by  Mr.  Sibley  with  his  blocks. 


ASTERN sr/trss 

^.basedon  ffie 
<RCES. 


COLORADO 


It  has  already  been  said  that  in  the  development  of  a  country, 
power  must  come  first.  Fig.  50  gives  us  clearly  the  tremendous 
advantage  the  West  has  in  its  March  for  greater  development  and 
greater  industrial  importance,  based  on  the  undeveloped  water 
power  resources  that  are  now  available  for  utilization. 

To  some  the  cost  of  electricity  here  in  the  West  looks 
large  because  in  1920  the  average  cost  of  electricity  to 
each  inhabitant  in  the  Western  States  was  three  and 
thirty-four  hundredths  cents  and  in  all  of  the  other  states 
it  was  one  and  eighty-one  hundredths  cents.  You  will 
note,  by  referring  to  Fig.  51,  the  significant  fact  that  in 
the  Western  States  the  number  of  kilowatt-hours  used 
per  capita  was  eight  hundred  ninety-five,  and  in  all  the 
other  states  the  number  of  kilowatt-hours  used  per  capita 
was  only  three  hundred  seventy-two.  The  difference  in 
cost  per  capita  is  due  to  volume  of  use. 


[Page    Fifty-four] 


Necessity  of  Financing 


WHY 


ELEC7ft/C  B/LL  L0O/CED 

&/TM. 


useo  /&?  CAPITA. 


TO 


STATES. 


STATES. 

3.3+* 


ALL  0THert 

STATES. 


TOTAL  COST  /#  HfcsT  /s  /.f  T-/#?S  AS  #uc#  AS  *v  EAST, 

SUT  £4  77#£S  AS  MUCH  £LECTff/CAL   £HERGr  IS  Uf£D. 


Fig.  51  and  52  forcibly  refute  any  claim  that  Western  power  com- 
panies are  making  unjustly  large  profits.  The  cost  to  the  average 
power  company  consumer  of  the  West  per  kilowatt-hour  is  some- 
thing like  ten  per  cent  less  than  that  prevailing  in  the  next  lowest 
district  and  just  about  half  what  the  inhabitant  of  New  England 
must  pay  for  his  service. 


WHY  YOUR  ELECT/MC  B/LL  /§ 

COMfi4fMT/VELY  LOW 


or 


COMPANIES 


ATLAMT/C        MO&TH  SOI/TH 

SLAND  STATES.  CCMTKAL  Ce^r 

STATCS.  STATES  Sr 


[Page    Fifty-five] 


Story"  §f  California 


The  average  revenue  of  the  power  companies  for  each 
kilowatt-hour  produced  in  the  eleven  Western  States — 
these  figures  being  taken  from  the  census  report — was 
one  and  thirty-six  hundredths  cents ;  in  the  New  England 
States  it  was  two  and  seven-tenths  cents.  You  will  note 
that,  by  Fig.  52,  the  Western  States  have  the  lowest  cost 
.of  any  of  the  groups  of  states. 

The  chart  following  shows  that  the  kilowatt-hours 
generated  from  1900  to  1920  increased  at  a  much  more 
rapid  rate  than  our  population  and  is  another  graphic 
illustration  of  the  greater  per  capita  use  of  electricity  in 
California  and  the  Western  States  than  in  other  sections 
of  the  country. 


3 

50 

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10 

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55 

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2 

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\$ 
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If 

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4 

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wtmn 

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6  ia 

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to 

o 

Fig.  53  gives  another  set  of  curves  that  testify  as  to  the  increas- 
ingly greater  use  being  made  of  electric  power  by  the  average 
Westerner.  Such  an  increase  comes  because  of  the  fact  that  elec- 
tricity has  been  found  to  be  an  asset  in  business,  a  profit  maker 
in  industry  and  a  comfort  in  the  home. 

The  chart  in  Fig.  54  shows  the  growth  of  kilowatt- 
hours  generated  in  relation  to  the  growth  of  population 
in  the  eleven  Western  States.  I  assume  some  of  you  will 
be  interested  not  only  in  the  prediction  as  to  the  kilowatt- 
hours  generated  in  1930  but  the  prediction  on  that  chart 
as  to  the  costume  to  be  worn  by  women  in  1930. 


[Page    Fifty-  six] 


Necessity  of  Financing 


GROWTH  or/flK/faS.  GENEftJTED 

w/m  GROWTH  OF 

THE  //  WESTEffN  <S7ZTES. 


so.ooo.ooo.ooo 


(f 

|« 


7SKtM*tfti>  ISOKH'rtB'r* 

/NH4B/T4Nr.  /NHtB/rANT. 


II OZ 


1930. 


Fig.  54  carries  the  story  of  Fig.  53  pictorially  into  the  next  ten 
year  period.  The  size  of  the  woman's  figure  represents  the  load 
of  population  in  the  West  at  the  dates  specified;  the  size  of  the 
electric  lamp  represents  the  total  amounts  of  electric  power  pro- 
duced in  the  West  in  corresponding  years.  It  is  easy  to  see  how 
much  more  rapidly  the  lamp  has  grown  in  size  than  the  woman. 

The  next  chart  is  one  of  the  most  significant  and 
interesting  charts  that  I  have  seen.  It  gives  the  per- 
centage of  homes  electrified  in  the  territory  served  by 
the  power  companies  in  the  eleven  Western  States.  In 
1910,  75%  of  the  homes  were  electrified;  in  1920,  83% 
of  the  homes  were  electrified.  The  figures  for  the  rest 
of  the  country  are  somewhere  between  35  and  40%  and 
the  consumption  of  kilowatt-hours  used  per  home  served 
has  increased  in  the  West  from  1910  to  1920  by  almost 
one  hundred  kilowatt-hours. 

The  chart  shown  in  Fig.  56  indicates  the  certainty  of 
the  growth  of  the  electrical  industry  in  the  West.  The 
white  space  from  the  base  line  to  the  dark  space  repre- 
sents the  amount  of  hydroelectric  power  generated  and 
the  black  space  represents  steam  generated  power.  You 
will  notice  what  a  steady  growth  there  has  been  despite 
earthquakes  and  fires,  financial  depressions  and  other 
economic  adversities.  The  black  spaces  in  1917,  '18  and 


[Page    Fifty-seven] 


Story*  gf  California 


-MfcSTERN  S&TES. 


wo*  TZ/f/t/ro/fy  or  Sewr/tiL  TbMs&f  G>M/*I///ES 
£93,740  HOMES  //v  /92O. 


KW.Hrts.  USED 


1910 


1920 


1915 


Fig.  55  gives  concrete  evidence  of  the  previous  statements  that  a 
greater  use  is  being  made  of  electricity  in  the  home.  Notice  that 
the  use  per  home  has  increased  close  to  forty  per  cent  in  the  ten 
years  just  past.  During  the  same  period  the  number  of  homes 
which  were  not  served  by  electricity  has  decreased. 


STEAM -ELECTRIC 
-POWER 


HYDRO-ELECTRIC  POWER 


1907  1908  1309  1910    1911    1912    1913    1914  1915    1916    1917    1918    1319   1920 


The  curve  shown  in  Fig.  56  has  deep  significance  to  us  all  in  several 
ways.  In  the  first  place  it  shows  how  certainly  and  steadily  the 
demand  for  electric  power  has  grown  in  California  since  the  public 
utilities  launched  their  campaign  of  greater  service  to  the  people. 
Most  important,  however,  is  the  necessity  which  is  shown  for 
adequate  hydroelectric  capacity  and  definite  annual  increases. 
With  the  supply  of  fuel  oil  in  more  or  less  uncertainty, 
it  is  obvious  that  an  adequate  program  of  hydroelectric  power 
development  must  be  encouraged  and  safeguarded  in  every  way 
possible. 


[Page    Fifty-eight] 


Necessity  of  Financing 


'19  are  significant.  They  indicate  the  effect  of  our  dry 
years,  and,  of  course,  they  indicate  also  the  results  of 
under-development  of  the  hydroelectric  industry. 

A  prediction  as  to  the  per  capita  production  of  elec- 
tric energy  in  the  West  has  been  made  by  the  chart  in 
Fig.  57.  Two  factors  are  used  in  plotting  these  lines; 


PRODUCT/OH  OF  £LEC7ff/C  ENERGY 

O/WfS  CO#rWt/£0  l/P  70  /930  Off  B4S/S  Of  rt?£V/OVS  GftOW 

QlL/FV/tAfM  -WESTERN  SBIfiES /HUUDHIC  CALIF.. 

AND  ALL  Omm  STXTZS. 


trod 


I10Z       1105 


nzo 


1130 


From  1880  to  1920,  the  Westerner  learned  to  use  more  electricity 
in  the  home  and  on  his  city  streets,  he  demanded  more  goods  made 
in  factories  electrically  operated,  he  consumed  more  food  from 
acres  electrically  irrigated.  This  increase  has  been  a  steady  ad- 
vance, irrespective  of  hard  times  or  war  depressions.  Fig.  57 
shows  how  much  the  per  capita  production  of  electric  power  will 
be  in  1930,  if  only  the  present  rate  of  increase  is  maintained.  It 
is  very  likely,  however,  that  an  even  greater  increase  will  be 
noticed. 


first,  the  growth  of  population  and,  second,  the  growth 
of  the  per  capita  consumption.  The  growth  of  the  popu- 
lation in  the  past  has  been  taken  and  projected.  The 
actual  growth  in  the  use  per  capita  of  electric  energy  has 
been  taken  and  projected.  The  combination  of  those  two 
factors  shows  that  from  1920  to  1930  the  per  capita 
production  of  electric  energy,  based  upon  the  record  of 
the  past,  will  increase  from  1085  kw-hr.  per  capita  to 
1700  kw-hr.  per  capita  in  1930. 


[Page    Fifty-nine] 


Story"  §f  California 


1 


*          1                                1                                1                                1 

CLEAR  COLUMN  shows  H.  P.  Capacity  of  Water  Power  5000000 
SHADED  COLUMN  shows  H.  P.  Capacity  of  Steam  Installations  1 

FUTURE  INSTALLATIONS  up  to  and  including  1930,  are  based  on 
Power  Companies'  Estimates 

*nnn  noo  f 

% 

| 

15 

(Y\*                           lrr 

[Page    Sixty  1 


Necessity  of  Financing 


The  large  chart  on  page  60  shows  the  installed 
capacity  of  the  power  companies  and  the  capacity  which 
they  will  have  in  1930.  These  capacities  are  based  upon 
a  projection  of  past  growth  and  check  in  horsepower  with 
the  kilowatt-hour  chart  previously  shown. 

The  chart  following  that  carries  forward  the  power 
companies'  figures  and  estimates,  based  upon  the  record 
from  1910  to  1920,  to  show  the  situation  from  1920  to 
1930.  Taking  the  period  from  1910  to  1920,  which  is 
known,  as  the  measure  for  the  next  period,  1920  to  1930, 
you  will  note  that  California,  Nevada  and  western  Ari- 
zona will  more  than  double  in  the  generation  of  electric 
power.  Nevada  and  western  Arizona  are  not  very  impor- 
tant in  this  computation  because  in  California  alone  about 
three  billion  four  hundred  million  kilowatt-hours  were 
generated.  Thus  the  line  for  group  one  may  be  taken  as 
representing  substantially  California,  and  you  will  note 
similarity  of  progress  in  the  eleven  Western  States. 


ELECTfflC/TY 

WESTERN  STATES. 


IN. 


TV 

usfo  f*t>t*  ft/Or*  /V?O 


Fig.  59  gives  a  set  of  curves  supplementary  to  Fig.  58,  in  that  it 
shows  the  actual  amount  of  power  generated  and  the  estimated 
total  that  will  be  generated  by  the  capacity  shown  in  Fig.  58. 


[Page    Sixty-one] 


Storjr  §f  California 


BV/LD/NG  PROGRAM  ! 

/WESTAfENrS  /Af  ELECTff/C  POWER  STSTEMS. 

//  M/£S T£/?M J7XT£S  -*/,00/, 000, 000  TO B£ SPENT  M A/£XT  /O  YEARS. 

/V/O  - 

281,200,000 
OIL/FORM*  A/FM04  &  W£5T£/PM  4fi/ZOSM -*S80,SMtOOO  //V 


/Z5/r00,000  ^08,000,000 

/WESTMENT  /N  GENEMT/NG  PUNTS. 

//W£ST£ftH  STATES. 

O 

//?,  082,  000 

CJLIFOffMM 


HMooo 


272,  OSO,  OOO 


Fig.  60  shows  that  in  order  to  carry  out  the  electric  construction 
program  outlined  by  the  public  service  industry  of  the  western 
states  for  the  next  ten  years,  over  one  billion  dollars  will  be  needed. 
This  must  come  in  large  or  small  amounts  from  the  investors  of 
the  country  if  the  work  is  to  be  carried  out. 

The  chart  shown  above  I  hesitate  to  use  because  I 
don't  agree  with  the  figures.  They  are  based  upon  in- 
vestment at  pre-war  prices,  under  conditions  as  they  ex- 
isted in  1914.  Taking  them  as  a  basis  for  this  chart,  we 
have  in  1910  an  investment  in  the  electric  power  systems 
in  the  eleven  Western  States  of  two  hundred  and  eighty- 
one  million;  in  1820  the  investment  is  seven  hundred  and 
ninety  million  dollars,  and  by  1930  that  investment  will 
be  increased  to  one  billion,  seven  hundred  and  ninety-one 
million  dollars.  For  California,  Nevada  and  Western  Ari- 
zona the  increase  from  1920  to  1930  shown  is  nearly  six 
hundred  million  dollars.  My  own  view  is  that  this  figure 
is  too  low  for  those  three  states  and  is  an  exceedingly 
conservative  for  California  alone. 

Chart  No.  61  supports  what  Mr.  Butler  and  Mr. 
Sibley  have  said.  It  indicates  the  amount  of  power  which 
has  come  from  the  coal  and  coke  up  to  1920 ;  the  amount 
of  power  which  has  come  from  petroleum  up  to  1920,  and 
the  amount  of  power  which  has  come  from  hydroelectric 


[Page    Sixty-two] 


Necessity  of  Financing 


4,000.000 


3,000.000 


2.00O.OOO 


1.000, 0  00 


SOURCE  OF  POWER  LIGHT  &HEAT  IN 
CALIFORNIA  —  WASHINGTON 


The  U.  S.  Fuel  Administration  prepared  the  chart  shown  in  Fig.  61 
to  show  how  small  a  part  of  the  burden  of  power,  light,  and  heat 
for  the  Pacific  Coast  states  is  borne  by  coal  and  that  oil  must  be 
expected  to  fall  off  during  the  next  few  years,  leaving  hydroelectric 
power  to  bear  the  burden. 


sources  up  to  1920.  The  demand  in  1930,  which  is  esti- 
mated to  be  thirteen  million  five  hundred  thousand  horse- 
power years,  is  to  be  met  by  allowing  petroleum  a  slight 
increase  in  the  development  of  power  in  the  next  ten 
years  and  a  slight  increase  for  coal  and  coke  in  the  next 
ten  years.  But  even  with  these  slight  increases  for 
petroleum,  coal  and  coke,  the  construction  programs  of 
the  power  companies  as  now  announced  are  not  large 
enough  to  meet  the  estimated  demand  in  1930.  On  the 
basis  of  this  computation,  there  will  be  a  shortage  of  one 
million  five  hundred  thousand  horsepower  years  in  1930 
unless  a  greater  burden  is  thrown  upon  petroleum,  coal 
and  coke,  or  unless  the  programs  of  the  power  companies 
are  increased.  These  programs  of  course  are  not  final. 
They  naturally  will  synchronize  with  conditions  as  they 
arise,  but  the  chart  does  significantly  call  to  your  atten- 
tion the  conservatism  of  the  programs  of  these  companies 
and  the  possibility  that  there  will  be  even  greater  de- 
mands upon  the  companies  than  those  that  have  been 
outlined.  In  that  connection  I  cannot  refrain  from  say- 


[Page  Sixty-three] 


Igfe  Story  §f  California 


ing  that  the  programs  of  the  power  companies  are  based 
upon  a  continuation  in  the  next  ten  years  of  the  rate  of 
growth  of  the. past  ten  years.  I  think  conditions  here 
are  such  that  that  growth  is  going  to  be  much  greater 
than  that.  I  believe  that  before  ten  years  are  over  the 
steam  railroads  of  this  state  will  no  longer  be  using  oil 
because  I  believe  the  oil  industry  cannot  permanently 


1920  CdNSUMPT/OM 


1920  CONSUMPTION. 


CALIFORNIA 
PfiOD(/Cr 
/OSJ00.0003U, 


CALIFORNIA  USES  MER  OWN  Q/L 
AND  A  LITTLE  B/r  MORE. 


By  electrificstiox  Me  life  of  oar 

can 


References  have  been  already  made  to  the  part  which  oil  plays 
in  the  generation  of  electric  power  in  California.  Fig.  62  gives 
graphically  the  situation  regarding  oil  and  its  use  by  various  parts 
of  our  complex  industrial  system. 

carry  the  burden  of  the  railroads  and  all  the  other  bur- 
dens which  it  must  carry.  Whether  it  will  be  electrifica- 
tion or  something  else  I  don't  know,  but  I  do  feel  that  oil 
will  not  be  used  as  the  means  of  power  for  railroad  trans- 
portation in  another  ten  years  in  California.  If  the  bur- 
den of  railroad  transportation  is  thrown  upon  the  power 
companies,  it  means  of  course  that  even  greater  programs 
must  be  carried  out  than  are  now  contemplated. 


[Page    Sixty-four] 


Necessity  of  Financing 


Over  and  above  the  future  power  for  railroads,  there 
are  many  new  uses  for  electricity  which  are  not  factors 
in  the  past  increase.  There  are  in  the  state  of  California 
today,  without  any  doubt,  a  billion  tons  of  high  grade 
iron  ore.  I  know  that  ore  will  not  remain  unused  in  the 
ground  for  a  great  many  years  longer  and  I  do  believe 
that  with  the  developments  that  are  going  on  in  the  steel 
industry  and  in  the  electrical  industry,  there  will  event- 


U.5.  OIL  INDUSTRY 


PETROLEUM  CONSUMED 
IN  US.  .  IN  MO. 
53 1, 186, 000 


OIL  REMAINING  IN  THE  GROUND 
U.S.  PROVEN  TtESEftVE  =  5,000,000,000 

CAL.  PROVEN  RESERVE  =  2,400,000,000  &>/*. 


Nor  can  any  hope  be  held  out  for  assistance  in  supplying  oil  from 
points  outside  of  California,  as  shown  by  Fig.  63.  The  shortage 
throughout  the  nation  is  as  serious,  in  relation  to  the  general 
situation,  as  is  the  shortage  in  California. 


ually  be  built  up  in  California  a  great  steel  industry  sup- 
ported by  our  iron  ore  and  our  electric  power.  If  this 
development  comes  about,  then  the  programs  which  we 
have  before  us  will  prove  inadequate.  This  situation  does 
give  a  justification  for  the  vision  of  those  men  who  have 
conceived  the  Colorado  River  Project;  it  does  justify  the 
most  serious  consideration  being  given  to  that  project 
and  I  personally  regard  the  work  of  those  men  who  have 


[  Page    Sixty-five] 


StorjT  §f  California 


gone  forward  to  study  that  project  as  a  great  contribu- 
tion to  the  future  of  this  state. 

You  will  notice  that  California  is  today  consuming 
more  oil  than  it  produces;  that  of  the  oil  produced  by 
California,  the  railroads  are  consuming  a  greater  propor- 
tion than  any  other  class  of  consumers. 

If  we  turn  to  the  petroleum  consumed  in  the  whole 
country,  we  find  that  the  country  is  consuming  more  oil 


L/TTLE MLOM4TT  OUTGROWS  MS  BOTTLE. 

M  KWfa.  OarrvTM  CALIFORNIA  is  INDEPENDENT  or 
O/L  CONSUMED  IN  GENERATION  .    MITER  Form  /s 

ft£Sf>ONS/BLE   FOff  THE  GftOHTH-  A/OT  /*/<T/. 

mo. 


mo. 


150.000.000         IJSO.OOO.OO&KWhr        JS/tOOO 


Fig.  64  shows  how  the  public  utilities  are  becoming  less  and  less 
dependent  upon  oil  in  the  generation  of  electric  power.  The  rela- 
tion of  the  annual  consumption  of  electric  power  in  California  to 
the  amount  of  oil  consumed  by  the  electrical  industry  in  that  state 
is  here  graphically  presented,  the  area  of  the  child  and  that  of  the 
bottle  corresponding  relatively  to  these  factors.  "Little  Kilowatt" 
has  already  begun  to  take  to  a  more  concentrated  water  diet — and 
is  likely  to  use  less  and  less  oil  for  the  future.  It  is  upon  water 
power  development  that  he  must  depend  for  his  future  growth. 

than  it  is  producing.  The  outstanding  feature  in  the  oil 
industry  today  is  that  it  has  assumed  or  has  had  thrust 
upon  it,  burdens  beyond  its  capacity  to  carry  perma- 
nently. 

The  chart  of  Fig.  64  shows  the  growth  of  the  elec- 
trical industry  in  its  relation  to  oil  consumed  for  power. 
You  will  notice  how  much  more  rapidly  the  kilowatt-hour 


[Page    Sixty-six] 


Necessity  of  Financing 


PRIMARY  POWER  R 


Fig.  65  gives  the  surest  evidence  of  the  growth  of  the  West  as  an 
industrial  section,  as  it  is  here  only  that  inexhaustible  power 
resources  are  available.  Water  power  will  not  diminish  as  the 
years  go  by,  but  will  be  able  to  produce  more  and  more  electricity 
because  of  greater  efficiencies  which  the  machinery  manufacturers 
will  be  able  to  attain. 

output  has  grown  than  the  consumption  of  oil.  Our 
dependence  on  oil  must  continue  to  decrease  in  the  future, 
if  we  are  to  have  here  the  adequate  supply  of  power 
which  our  civilization  demands. 

The  chart  given  here  shows  the  primary  sources  of 
the  United  States.  The  significant  feature  about  it  is 
the  depiction  of  petroleum  and  coal  as  power  sources  for 
the  East,  and  the  unending  flow  of  water  for  the  West. 
As  the  sources  of  power  in  the  East  are  used  up,  they 
will  become  more  and  more  expensive.  The  industrial 
movement,  of  necessity,  therefore,  must  be  westward  to 
the  supply  of  water  power. 

Now  I  want  to  say  a  few  words  about  financing  these 
construction  programs.  I  am  by  no  means  satisfied  that 
the  programs  outlined  are  adequate  for  the  next  ten 
years.  I  am  very  deeply  sensible  of  the  fact  that  there 
may  come  and  probably  will  come  new  uses  for  power 
which  will  cause  the  men  in  the  power  industry  to  create 
new  programs  of  construction.  The  industry  as  a  whole 


[Page    Sixty-seven] 


Story  gf  California 


represents  today  a  very  considerable  investment,  some- 
thing like  two  billion  dollars  in  bonds  and  nearly  two  bil- 
lion dollars  in  stocks.  That  investment  has  grown  up 
since  1902  from  a  very  few  millions  of  dollars  investment 
in  bonds  to  the  enormous  investment  of  nearly  four  bil- 
lions of  dollars  in  bonds  and  stocks.  The  Electrical  World 
has  estimated  that  in  the  next  five  years  the  industry  as 
a  whole  will  need  some  three  billions  of  dollars  to  meet 
the  demands  for  new  generating  plants,  transmission 
lines  and  distribution  systems.  In  California  a  most 
conservative  estimate  of  our  needs  in  the  next  ten  years 
is  from  six  to  eight  hundred  millions  of  dollars  to  meet 
what  may  be  regarded  as  the  normal  growth  in  the  de- 
mand for  electric  energy.  These  figures  will  indicate  to 
you  the  importance  of  the  job  of  financing  the  needs  of 
the  industry. 

By  financing  we  mean  securing  new  money  to  build 
new  generating  plants,  new  transmission  lines  and  new 
substations  and  new  distribution  systems.  That  money 
cannot  come  out  of  the  revenues  of  these  companies.  It  is 
impossible  for  it  to  come  out  of  their  revenues.  I  am 
astounded  every  little  while  to  find  the  notion  in  men's 
minds  that  the  companies  are  financing  out  of  revenues 
and  that  they  can  finance  out  of  revenues.  It  is  an  utterly 
impossible  thing.  In  the  first  place,  the  wages  of  capital 
must  be  distributed.  Under  our  system  of  regulation  we 
are  allowed  to  earn  our  actual  out  of  pocket  costs,  depre- 
ciation, and,  in  addition,  an  interest  return  upon  the 
capital  in  the  business.  Now,  the  amount  allowed  for 
capital  must  be  distributed  to  capital,  just  as  the  wages 
of  labor  must  be  distributed  to  labor. 

It  may  interest  you  to  know  that  the  Pacific  Gas  & 
Electric  Company  for  the  year  1920  distributed  in  wages 
in  round  figures,  eleven  million  dollars,  and  distributed  for 
interest,  as  the  wages  of  capital,  five  million  dollars  in 
round  figures,  so  that  we  distributed  as  the  wages  of 
labor,  more  than  twice  the  amount  we  distributed  as  the 
wages  of  capital.  The  wages  of  capital  must  be  paid  or 
capital  will  not  perform  any  more  than  labor  will  perform 
if  its  wages  are  not  paid.  As  regulation  limits  our  return 
to  the  wages  of  capital,  we  can  not  finance  out  of  reve- 
nues, and,  even  if  there  were  no  regulations,  it  would  still 
be  impossible  to  finance  out  of  revenues  because  it  would 


[Page    Sixty-eight] 


Necessity  of  Financing 


be  necessary  to  increase  rates  very  materially  in  order  to 
secure  revenue  enough  to  finance  these  companies.  That 
is,  for  every  dollar  of  increased  gross  revenues  which  we 
receive,  we  must  invest  in  the  industry  from  four  to  five 
dollars  of  new  capital.  To  put  it  another  way:  if  our 
gross  revenue  increases  a  hundred  thousand  dollars,  it 
means  that  we  have  invested  a  half  a  million  dollars  in 


/9/3 


TTH 

1914      19/5    19/6 


Fig.  66  shows  the  effect  of  a  shortage  on  the  price  of  oil.  Up  until 
1915,  the  possibility  of  California  oil  giving  out  was  not  given 
serious  consideration.  With  the  rapidly  increasing  demand  of  the 
past  few  years,  however,  the  oil  industry  has  begun  to  take  count 
of  stock.  The  result  has  been  a  price  increase  which  brought  1920 
prices  to  three  times  their  pre-war  level.  The  improvement  in  the 
purchasing  value  of  the  dollar  over  post-war  conditions  has  brought 
this  figure  down  somewhat,  but  the  slight  reduction  only  serves 
to  show  that  the  increase  is  an  actual  one  and  not  a  mere  feature 
of  the  currency  inflation. 


[Page    Sixty-nine] 


Story"  §f  California 


new  plants,  extensions  or  what  not,  in  order  to  get  that 
hundred  thousand  dollars  of  revenue.  So  that  to  attempt 
financing  out  of  revenues  would  throw  an  economic  bur- 
den upon  consumers  which  they  could  not  carry. 

One  of  the  important  factors  in  the  increased  con- 
sumption of  electricity  in  the  West  over  the  eastern  sec- 
tions of  the  country  has  been  its  low  cost.  The  men  in 
this  industry  recognize  the  necessity  for  keeping  costs 
down  in  this  state  as  low  as  safety  will  permit.  We  are 
faced  in  this  financing,  not  with  the  problem  of  increas- 
ing rates,  but  with  the  problem  of  securing  new  money, 
persuading  new  money  to  come  into  the  industry.  I  want 
to  make  this  thought  very  plain  to  you,  that  no  matter 
how  eloquently  Mr.  Sibley  or  Mr.  Miller  may  paint  the 
necessities  of  the  future,  no  matter  how  movingly  the 
people  of  California  and  the  world  may  be  shown  what 
electrical  development  means  to  the  West,  such  argu- 
ments will  not  bring  the  money.  The  investor  is  not 
moved  at  all  by  sentiment. 

The  investor  insists  upon  certain  definite  things.  He 
insists  upon  the  safety  of  his  investment  and  that  is  the 
controlling  factor.  When  you  go  to  secure  money  you 
must  be  able  to  show  that  the  investment  is  intrinsically 
sound;  that  the  interest  will  be  paid  regularly  and  con- 
tinuously; and  that  the  investment  in  whatever  form  it 
be,  has  reasonable  convertibility. 

We  must,  in  our  power  industry  and  in  every  other 
industry  in  California  which  needs  financing,  be  able  to 
meet  those  requirements.  How  are  we  going  to  meet 
them?  Well,  in  the  public  service  industry  in  California 
we  are  in  a  most  advantageous  situation.  We  have,  as  I 
believe,  definitely  established  here  the  principle  of  state 
regulation.  The  recent  legislative  investigation  which 
grew  out  of  an  attack  upon  state  regulation  seems  to  me 
to  have  resulted  in  permanently  establishing  the  principle 
of  state  regulation  in  the  state  of  California.  If  the  state 
of  California  had  run  amuck  and  had  gone  back  to  local 
regulation,  the  power  programs  which  are  now  before  you 
would  never  have  been  undertaken.  They  would  not  have 
moved  forward  one  minute  because  local  regulation  would 
have  destroyed  the  credit  of  the  companies  so  far  as 
future  developments  were  concerned.  It  is  a  gratifying 
thing  to  those  of  us  who  have  this  burden  of  financing 


[Page    Seventy] 


Necessity  of  Financing 


to  know  that  California  seems  to  be  permanently  com- 
mitted to  the  principle  of  state-wide  regulation  by  com- 
petent experts.  We  have  a  greater  fortune  or  as  great 
a  fortune  in  this,  that  our  State  Railroad  Commission 
has  thought  soundly  upon  this  question  of  regulation. 
It  has  not  had  the  conception  that  it  represented  solely 


POWER  L/GHTw  MEAT*  WESTERN  SfflES. 

ELECTRICITY,  O/L  /tw  CML  £Xf>/?£5S£D  /N///?)fai/?s. 


Tomake  /3,500,OOOH  PYrs  ^ 

4,700,000  H friars  of  f/ecfrictf/- arus 
TM3  trtfl  rffuire  7,e5O.OOOHP  znstet/ecf  c 

tf  fitgn/s  tn  /93O,assumi"*  f>?  r*.*^, 
The  fbver  Co>ry!&n1es  ffa 

S.3SO.OOO  XF 


15,000,000 


I1ZO 


mo 


The  shortage  of  power  which  can  be  expected  unless  the  complete 
program  of  hydroelectric  development  is  put  through  is  shown  by 
Fig.  67.  By  converting  annual  coal  and  oil  consumption  figures 
of  the  West  into  horsepower-years,  on  the  basis  of  5  tons  of  coal 
or  20  barrels  of  oil  per  installed  hp.,  and  projecting  these  curves 
into  the  future,  it  is  obvious  that  even  the  billion-dollar  program 
of  the  public  service  industry  for  the  next  ten  years  is  likely  to 
fall  short.  A  sixty  per  cent  load  factor  is  assumed  for  electric 
power. 

the  consumer  who  wanted  a  reduction  in  his  bills;  nor 
that  it  represented  solely  the  company  that  wanted  an 
increase  in  its  rates.  It  has  seemed  to  me  to  have  been 
moved  by  a  sense  of  its  responsibility  to  the  state  and 
the  people  as  a  whole,  by  a  consideration  and  knowledge 
of  the  public  interest. 

The  investor  to  whom  we  appeal  wants  to  know  what 
the  state  policy  of  regulation  is;  he  wants  to  know 
whether  his  investment  is  to  be  permanently  protected; 


[Page    Seventy-one] 


Story*  §f  California 


he  wants  to  know  whether  or  not,  after  he  is  invited  and 
encouraged  to  come  into  the  public  service  industry  of 
California,  the  policy  of  protecting  his  investment  will 
continue.  The  result  of  the  legislative  investigation  has 
great  significance  in  financing  the  power  companies.  The 
investor  is  not  going  to  come  in  unless  he  believes  our 
past  policy  is  permanent, — that  the  state  will  be  fair  and 
square  with  him  when  he  comes  into  the  industries  of 
this  state  and  furnishes  the  capital  to  build  up  the  state. 
The  conclusions  of  the  legislative  committee  regarding 
state  regulation  are  assuring  and  satisfactory. 

And  one  other  thing  the  investor  is  interested  in, 
and  that  is  the  attitude  of  government  toward  industry. 
This  is  a  national  issue  as  well  as  a  state  issue.  The 
national  government  is  -  proceeding  intelligently,  but  I 
want  to  say  here  just  as  I  said  in  Sacramento,  that  the 
greatest  economic  crime  any  state  government  can  com- 
mit is  to  indulge  in  the  kind  of  economic  thinking  our 
state  government  has  been  following.  The  total  appro- 
priations for  the  next  two  years  which  have  been  checked 
by  the  Comptroller  to  date, — they  are  not  all  in — amount 
to  $91,120,000.  Two  years  ago  the  state  budget  was 
forty-seven  million,  the  appropriations  five  million,  a 
total  tax  bill  of  $52,000,000.  Our  state  government  in 
times  like  these  when  the  very  economic  heavens  cry  out 
not  to  do  it,  has  sanctioned  total  appropriations  of  more 
than  ninety-one  million  dollars  for  the  next  two  years. 
The  estimated  revenue  available  for  the  same  period  is 
eighty-three  million  dollars  plus  an  accumulated  surplus 
of  six  million  dollars,  so  that  there  is  a  constructive 
deficit  of  a  little  over  two  million  dollars  today.  This 
thing  has  been  done,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  at  a  time  when 
economy  is  being  practiced  by  every  sound,  sane  thinking 
man  in  the  state  of  California.  I  make  no  apology  for 
criticising.  I  am  not  in  politics  and  no  company  I  am 
connected  with  ever  will  be  in  politics,  but  I  will  continue 
to  assert  and  exercise  my  right  to  say  what  I  think  of 
that  sort  of  public  policy  and  to  tell  the  people  of  this 
state  the  economic  crime  committed  against  them  by  that 
sort  of  governmental  action. 

Finally,  I  want  to  leave  with  you  just  this  thought: 
that  we  must  realize  here  in  California  how  inter-related 
we  are  in  all  our  pursuits ;  we  must  realize  that  whatever 
helps  agriculture,  is  helping  industry;  that  whatever 

[Page    Seventy-two] 


Necessity  of  Financing1 


helps  industry  is  helping  banking,  etc.  We  must  above 
all  realize  that  in  the  vanguard  of  our  development  must 
go  not  only  the  power  companies,  but  all  the  public  serv- 
ice companies,  because  it  is  an  economic  fact  that  our 
general  development  cannot  exceed  the  development  of 


POWER 

SOURCE  &  £JLECT/?/c/rr. 


Cos  r  or 


100% 


COST  OFltfrrEf?  PbivE/f  £L£CT7f/cjry. 


The  natural  result  of  an  increasing  price  of  crude  oil  for  fuel  is  an 
increase  in  the  cost  of  electric  power  generated  by  steam  driven 
machines.  With  water  power,  however,  little  increase  will  take 
place  in  the  cost  of  electricity  generated  by  hydraulically  driven 
machines.  In  the  old  days  of  cheap  oil,  the  initial  cost  of  a  water 
power  plant  was  so  much  greater  than  that  of  a  steam  plant  that 
it  was  often  found  more  economical  to  pay  for  fuel  than  to  pay 
the  interest  on  the  larger  investment.  That  day  has  passed,  as  is 
clearly  shown  by  the  estimates  of  comparative  cost  submitted  by 
California  companies.  Water  power  is  the  fuel  of  the  future,  as 
Fig.  68  shows. 

the  public  service  industry.  You  can  have  in  the  banks 
all  the  money  that  you  can  conceive  of,  you  can  have  all 
the  credit  facilities  that  you  can  conceive  of,  but  if  your 
public  service  industry  is  under-developed  and  unprepared 
to  meet  the  public  need,  growth  will  be  stifled.  This  con- 
ception of  the  public  service  industry  as  the  vanguard  of 
growth  and  development  must  be  brought  home  to  our 
people.  They  must  see  that  great  economic  truth;  they 


[Page    Seventy-three] 


Story  gf  California 


must  understand  it  and  they  must  feel  it,  and  we  on  our 
part  in  the  business  must  deserve  the  cooperation  which 
we  ask.  We  must  be  like  a  university  president;  we 
must  have  a  great  deal  of  faith  and  we  must  have  a  great 
deal  of  patience— faith  that  our  educational  work  will 
bear  results,  patience  to  await  those  results. 


THE    ELECTRIC    PUBLIC    SERVICE     INDUSTRY    OF    THE     WEST    IN     1920 


Total  investment  
Employes  _ 
Annual   payroll   

Calif. 

$567,102,093 
21,178 
$  28,293,964 

Northwest     1 

1 
$248,525,642 
5,909 
$  10,005,740 

^ntermountain 
md  Southwest 

$360,842,453 
3,840 
$     5,680,3% 

*  Estimate    11 
Western  States 

$1,318,000,000 
34,200 
$  48,300,000 

Annual  taxes 
No.  consumers  

$     5,035,631 
780,691 

$     2,155,595 
323,895 

$     2,242,771 
255,366 

$  10,200,000 
1,485,000 

Connected  load,  hp.  

2,603,682 

986,847 

1,217,244 

5,330,000 

Installed  capacity,   hp. 

Wate 

Stear 

Total 
Kw-hr. 
Miles  o 
Fuels  used: 

Coal — tons  

Oil— bbl. 

Gas — cu.    ft.    . 


power  plants- 
plants  

783,727 
422,683 

449,000 
138,000 

591,000 
111,000 

1,861,000 
759,900 

1,206,410 

585,000 

702,000 

2,515,000 

generated  
wire  

3,648,955,316 
116,585 

1,450,463,882 
39,769 

2,194,680,082 
50,300 

7,970,862,000 
226,000 

0 

4,991,599 
2,800,000 


43,472 
166,779 


224,299 
0 


706,419 
6,339,574 
3,042,007 


*Based   on   U.    S.    Geological   .Survey    Figures    for    1920. 


[Page  Seventy-four] 


Outstanding  National  Features 


Outstanding   Features   of  the 
National   Situation 

BY  R.  H.  BALLARD 

Vice-President  and  General  Manager,  Southern  California  Edison  Company 

BEFORE  reviewing  the  story  of  western  development, 
I  thought  it  would  be  easy  to  speak  on  the  subject 
assigned  to  me  on  this  program,  but  as  I  sat  here 
through  such  a  wonderful  program  I  heard  my  National 
features  all  explained  by  the  preceding  speakers.  I  am 
forced,  therefore,  to  the  conclusion  that  there  isn't  much 
nationally  by  way  of  principle  that  is  not  already  under 
way  here  in  California. 

One  of  the  features  of  the  recent  N.  E.  L.  A.  Conven- 
tion was  presented  by  Mr.  Samuel  Insull  of  Chicago,  and  it 
was  the  subject  of  building  large  central  generating  sta- 
tions and  inter-connecting  transmission  lines.  There  was 
shown  a  very  considerable  inter-connected  system  all 
through  the  Mississippi  Valley,  but  reference  was  made 
in  very  flattering  terms  to  the  inter-connections  on  the 
Pacific  Coast. 

Then  was  taken  up  the  question  of  the  proposed 
superpower  system  on  the  Atlantic  Coast.  During  the 
discussion  it  developed  that  the  only  thing  new  concern- 
ing this  superpower  system  was  its  name.  It  developed 
that  morning  when  the  general  subject  of  large  gener- 
ating stations  and  inter-connected  systems  was  under 
discussion,  that  the  business  that  we  are  now  engaged  in 
has  grown  to  such  a  point  and  advanced  in  an  engineering 
way  to  such  a  degree,  that  we  are  forced  way  beyond  the 
boundaries  of  municipalities,  of  companies  and  of  states 
themselves;  that  the  economic  situation  demands  that 
these  systems  traverse  the  country  just  in  the  same  man- 
ner as  the  transcontinental  railroads  do.  With  the  ad- 
vance in  electrical  transmission  at  higher  and  higher 
voltages  and  at  longer  and  longer  distances,  we  can 
visualize  transmission  systems  several  times  the  length 
and  size  of  those  now  existent  in  California.  There  was 
also  developed  the  point  that  in  some  of  the  Eastern  sec- 
tions of  the  country  the  laws  are  so  inadequate  as  to  pro- 
hibit the  transmission  of  electric  energy  from  one  state 

[Page    Seventy-five] 


Story*  §f  California 


Fig.  69.  —  Marble  Canyon  Damsite  on  the  Colorado  River 
where  the  Southern  California  Edison  Comany  proposes  to  build 
a  500-foot  dam  which  will  impound  forty  million  acre-feet  of  water 
in  an  artificial  lake  over  two  hundred  miles  in  length,  with  a  pos- 
sible development  of  two  and  one-half  million  horsepower.  The 
project  outlined  by  the  Southern  California  Edison  Company  in 
its  application  now  before  the  Federal  Water  Power  Board,  sug- 
gests the  carrying  out  of  this  great  undertaking  as  a  cooperative 
enterprise,  together  with  such  other  power  companies  as  may  wish 
to  participate,  construction  work  to  be  done  at  cost  under  supervis- 
ion of  the  government,  with  the  interests  of  flood  control,  irrigation 
and  power  needs  alike  conserved. 


[Page    Seventy-six] 


Outstanding  National  Features 


to  another  and  it  is  for  that  reason  more  than  any  other 
that  the  great  superpower  scheme  has  been  evolved.  One 
of  the  first  things  they  must  do  is  to  have  some  changes 
in  those  laws.  We  were  told  there  that  that  is  the  only 
reason  why  any  governmental  assistance  has  been  asked 
for  the  superpower  plan,  which  was  definitely  outlined 
as  a  plan  for  private  ownership  under  state  and  public 
regulation. 

We  have  a  lot  of  power  yet  to  develop  in  California 
if  we  are  going  to  keep  pace  with  even  the  normal  de- 
mand which  has  been  outlined  here  today.  The  plan  for 
the  development  of  the  Colorado  River  in  addition  to  and 
supplementing  the  development  within  the  state  of  Cal- 
ifornia, seems  to  me  to  be  directly  in  line  with  that  fun- 
damental principle  or  outstanding  feature  to  which  I  have 
referred  and  which  was  discussed  at  Chicago.  The  Col- 
orado River  power  will  create  a  reservoir  holding  some 
forty  million  acre  feet  of  water.  Mr.  Sibley  referred  to 
the  largest  reservoir  in  the  world  in  one  of  his  charts  at 
present  existent,  some  three  and  a  half  million  acre  feet. 
The  Colorado  River  storage  reservoir,  therefore,  will  be 
ten  times  as  great  as  that  largest  reservoir  referred  to, 
which  was  to  take  a  million  men  drinking  a  quart  of  water 
a  day  the  time  since  Noah  to  consume.  It  would  take  ten 
million  people  performing  the  same  service  over  the  same 
length  of  time  to  drain  the  Colorado  reservoir. 

In  the  matter  of  oil  consumption  the  power  which 
may  be  developed  from  the  Colorado  River  will  substitute 
for  ninety  million  barrels  annually  and  that  very  closely 
approximates  the  total  oil  production  of  the  entire  state 
of  California.  Incident  to  the  development,  water  may  be 
placed  upon  some  two  and  a  half  million  additional  acres 
of  land  which  now  are  practically  desert  and  non-produc- 
tive and  some  three  hundred  miles  of  river  will  be  made 
navigable.  We  could  go  on  counting  up  and  up  the  in- 
creased values  and  economic  wealth,  but  the  more  we  say 
about  it  the  more  we  all  realize  that  it  is  a  project  which 
will  require  the  most  earnest  cooperation,  support  and 
enthusiasm  of  every  company  in  California  and  in  the  six 
other  states  involved,  as  well  as  that  of  every  man  and 
woman  in  our  industry  and  the  people  at  large. 

Another  feature  touched  on  at  Chicago  was  the  mat- 
ter of  finance  and  the  question  of  selling  stock.  It  was  re- 

[Page    Seventy-seven] 


Story"  §f  California 


ported  there  that  a  canvass  of  some  forty  companies  in 
the  United  States  showed  a  little  over  a  billion  shares 
of  stock  to  have  been  sold  to  the  public  so  far.  The  num- 
ber of  stockholder  consumers  now  reported  by  those  forty 
companies  in  the  United  States  was  about  one  and  a  half 
per  cent  as  compared  with  population  served.  I  know  you 
will  all  be  glad  to  learn  that  the  credit  for  the  starting 
of  this  stock  selling  plan  of  interesting  the  public  in  the 
territories  served  directly  as  partners,  was  credited  to  the 
Pacific  Gas  &  Electric  of  San  Francisco,  as  they  were  the 


30000 


25000 


30,500 


£. lecfric  Service  Companies 

Electric  Railways 

Electrified  Heavy  Traction  Railroad 


lopoo 


5000 


1910     1911      191Z     1913     1914    1915     1916     1917     1918     1919    1925    1930 

Fig.  70. — Past  and  Future  Estimated  Growth  of  Energy  in  the 
Atlantic  Super-power  Zone. 

first  Company  in  the  United  States,  or  for  that  matter 
in  the  world,  to  start  the  plan. 

Another  feature  brought  out  was  that  of  cooperation 
within  the  industry  and  cooperation  of  the  industry  as 
a  collective  unit  and  as  individuals  with  the  general  public. 

I  predict,  because  of  the  work  that  has  been  done  in 
California  along  this  line,  that  within  a  very  few  years 
no  one  connected  with  the  electrical  industry  anywhere 
in  the  United  States  will  feel  that  he  is  really  in  the  in- 
dustry unless  he  is  honestly  and  earnestly  cooperating 
with  every  other  member  or  branch  of  it. 


[Page    Seventy-eight] 


Interest  to  Every  Citizen 


Why  Every  Citizen  is  Interested 

BY  A.  EMORY  WISHON 
General  Manager,  San  Joaquin  Light  and  Power  Corporation 

WE   electrical   men   are    in   the   electrical    industry 
because  it  is  our  industry  and  we  are  proud  of  it, 
because  it  is  probably  the  greatest  industry  in  the 
world  today  and  it  is  the  basic  industry  upon  which  every 
other  industry  and  development  depends. 

Let  me  mention  a  few  figures  at  the  start.  There  is 
64,800,000  horsepower  of  developed  and  undeveloped 
water  power  in  the  United  States.  Of  that  amount,  the 
estimate  for  California  varies  from  six  million  horsepower 
to  nine  million  horsepower  and  I  am  optimistic  enough  to 
call  it  nine  million.  There  has  been  approximately  one 
million  horsepower  developed  in  this  state  so  that  we  have 
nine  times  the  possibilities  that  we  have  already  accom- 
plished for  all  lands,  minerals,  timber  and  in  fact  every- 
hting  that  goes  to  make  a  great  industrial  West. 

Now,  the  electrical  industry  in  California  anticipates 
a  development  in  that  state  of  seven  million  horsepower, 
and  development  requires  financing.  In  order  to  finance 
we  must  have  a  protected  investment  and  a  fair  rate  of 
return.  In  order  that  we  may  have  these  we  must  have 
fearless  legislation.  Legislation  represents  the  opinion 
of  the  voter,  and  properly  should.  Therefore  I  say  to  you 
that  the  greatest  problem  that  faces  the  electrical  indus- 
try today  is  the  problem  of  having  the  public  understand 
what  the  electrical  industry  is  doing  for  the  individual 
and  for  the  public  in  general. 

What  part  does  electricity  play  in  our  everyday  life? 
Picture  the  world  of  today  and  then  take  from  that  world 
the  electrical  development  of  the  last  thirty  years — what 
have  you  left  ?  A  world  without  adequate  communication, 
without  adequate  transportation,  without  electric  light  or 
power — a  world  without  possibilities.  Our  industry  is 
that  great  electrical  industry  which  has  made  the  world 
of  today  possible  and  upon  which  communication,  trans- 
portation, light,  heat,  and  power  depend.  The  trouble  is 
that  the  average  citizen  does  not  appreciate  or  understand 
these  facts.  He  does  not  understand  the  language  we 



[Page    Seventy-nine] 


Story*  §f  California 


speak,  the  electrical  terms,  or  the  details  of  our  business, 
and  the  fact  that  ours  is  the  basic  industry  must  be 
driven  home  to  him,  as  we  have  tried  to  drive  it  home 
here  today,  in  the  terms  of  what  our  development  means 
to  him  in  dollars  and  cents.  We  must  show  him  that 
when  our  business  suffers  his  business  suffers  and  when 
we  fail  to  develop  he  will  fail  to  develop.  When  he  under- 
stands that  he  is  affected  we  will  have  legislation  that 
will  make  the  necessary  development  possible. 


$1200,000000  YErY  WESTERN  MARKETS 

Sf'ENT  BY  TMC  ADDITIONAL  POPULATION  TOBE5EWEDBY  TMC  EILEXTRICAL  CONSTRUCTION  PROGRAM 


J*t  COMPANY. 3.  7, 00  Q  000 

CLtCTRICITY 15,000,000 

>/ATtR  COMPANY J*!oOqOOO 

JTRtET  CAR  COMPANY 2  7.  OOO.OOO 

RAILROAD  COMPANY 2  9,  OOO.OO  O 


#1,200.000000 


It  is  estimated  that  over  two  and  a  half  million  people  will  be  added 
to  the  population  of  the  West  by  1930.  This  means  that  western 
industries  and  western  agriculture  must  have  grown  sufficiently  to 
support  this  number  of  additional  people  by  that  time.  It  is 
obvious  that  the  plans  for  electrical  development  must  go  forward 
at  the  same  time  to  make  this  growth  possible.  What  the  money 
spent  by  these  2,600,000  inhabitants  will  mean  to  western  mer- 
chants is  presented  in  Fig.  71,  counting  $1500  as  the  average  in- 
come for  a  family  of  three  persons. 

We  who  study  the  problems  affecting  the  develop- 
ment of  the  West  know  that  the  West  can  not  develop 
ahead  of  her  hydroelectric  resources.  If  more  factories 
are  to  be  built  in  the  West  more  power  must  be  available ; 
if  farm  lands  are  to  be  developed  and  agriculture  ex- 
tended, there  must  be  more  power;  and  any  individual 
or  political  party  that  delays  such  development  delays  the 


[Page    Eighty] 


Interest  to  Every  Citizen 


development  of  the  state  of  California.  This  means  a 
delay  in  the  different  lines  of  industry,  a  loss  in  payrolls 
and  a  loss  in  income  to  every  business  in  the  state  of 
California.  To  get  that  story  over  is  the  biggest  problem 
before  the  electrical  industry  today. 

California  contemplates  a  program  of  hydroelectric 
construction  which  will  amount  to  one  billion  dollars  in 


Though  the  billion  dollars  which  will  be  required  for  the  present 
building  program  of  the  public  utilities  selling  electrical  service 
will  largely  come  from  outside  the  state,  much  of  it  will  be  spent 
in  the  state.  Fig.  72  shows  pictorially  the  percentages  of  this 
huge  sum  which  the  various  elements  of  our  commercial  life  will 
receive. 


[Page    Eighty-one] 


Story*  §f  California 


the  next  ten  years.  Let's  see  where  that  billion  dollars 
goes  to.  One  billion  dollars  in  actual  power  equipment! 
I  can  not  quote  figures  offhand  but  I  do  remember  that 
7  per  cent  of  that  total  one  billion  dollars  will  be  expended 
for  transformers,  and,  I  ask  you,  how  can  we  enlist  the 
help  of  the  man  who  makes  transformers  ?  How  can  we 
enlist  the  help  of  the  man  who  handles  the  materials  that 


2  BILLION  DOLLARS™  HOMES BY 1930 

ONE  FEATURE:  OF  THE:  DEVELOPMENT  MADE  POSSIBLE  BY  THE  ELECTRICAL  CONSTRUCTION  PROGRAM 


r* 1 1,0  00,000,000 


Fig.  73  shows  the  amounts  of  money  the  various  elements  of  our 
social  organization  will  receive  from  the  two  billion  which  will  be 
spent  for  homes.  Two  homes  are  built  in  the  city  to  support  the 
needs  of  one  farm  made  possible  in  the  country  by  electric  irriga- 
tion. Similarly  20  men  must  find  housing  on  the  average  for  every 
factory  which  is  placed  upon  the  power  company  lines.  These 
homes  will  each  need  about  400  kw-hr.  yearly  in  electric  service, 
and  the  people  who  live  in  them  will  need  employment  in  industries 
using  electric  power. 

go  to  make  up  transformers,  the  man  who  supplies  the 
copper,  the  fabrics,  and  the  men  who  work  on  the  payrolls 
of  those  companies? 

I  have  spoken  of  the  program  for  the  expenditure 
of  a  billion  dollars  for  hydroelectric  development  to  be 
spent  largely  in  the  state  of  California,  but  the  greatest 
thing  of  interest  is  what  that  billion  dollars  does  in  other 
lines  of  development.  For  instance,  figuring  on  the  basis 
of  our  actual  census,  that  is  the  homes  on  the  basis  of 


[Page    Eighty-two] 


Interest  to  Every  Citizen 


population,  we  find  that  by  extending  the  present  curve 
to  1930  the  West  will  need  two  billion  dollars  to  be  spent 
in  homes.  We  find  upon  further  analysis  that  in  the 
average  home  47%  of  the  cost  goes  to  labor,  and  53%  for 
material.  The  lumber  interests  alone  will  receive  14%  of 
this  two  billion  dollars.  Is  the  lumberman  interested  in 
electrical  development — in  legislation  that  will  make  pos- 
sible electrical  development?  Is  the  carpenter  trade  that 


60,000   customers   served; 

the  employment  of  1,300  people  in  the  electrical  indus- 
try with  salaries  paid  to  them  of  $2,000,000  annually; 

the  use  of  9,000  miles  of  wire, 

and  the  investment  of  $37,500,000  in  generating  plants, 

transmission  and  distribution  equipment. 

The  furnishing  of  electricity: 

for  the  electrification  of  25,000  new  homes, 
thus  serving  100,000  persons; 

the  operation  of  240  miles  of  electric  railways, 

representing  $27,600,000     of  investment, 

employing  1,200  persons, 

carrying  45,000,000  passengers, 

and  spending  $1,375,000  annually  as  operating  expenses; 

and  for 

the  operation  of  mines  and  reduction  plants, 
producing  $18,000,000  of  minerals  annually, 
employing  4,000  miners; 

the  operation  of  1,300  factories, 

representing  $100,000,000  of  investment, 

employing  27,000  persons, 

and  producing  $140,000,000  worth  of  goods  annually; 

the  irrigation  of  125,000  acres  of  land, 
resulting  in  the  expenditure  of  $6,250,000  for  improve- 
ments, 

producing  annually  $9,500,000  worth  of  crops, 
and  employing  5,000  farmers  and  laborers. 


Fig.  74.— What  100,000  hp.  installed  in  hydroelectric  power  plants 

means. 


[Page    Eighty- three] 


Story*  §f  California 


receives  15.5%  of  two  billion  dollars  interested  in  elec- 
trical development?  Is  electrical  development  then  en- 
tirely the  problem  of  the  electrical  industry,  or  is  it  a 
problem  that  affects  every  individual? 

Fig.  74  shows  exactly  what  one  hundred  thousand 
horsepower  installed  in  hydroelectric  plants,  or  one-tenth 


1  HP    IN  THE: 

POWER  PLANT 


I:1S 


i 


APPLIED  TO 

12  ACRES  WORTH  *30O 


4  HP  IN  MOTORS 
ON  THE:  FARM 


PRODUCES 

1000  IN  CROPS 

EVERY  YEAR 


MAKES 

THE  LAND  WORTH  *24OO 


Fig.  75  gives  figures  that  were  obtained  from  government  reports. 
Think  what  it  will  mean  in  increased  land  value,  crop  returns  and 
additional  employment,  when  electric  power  makes  possible  the 
cultivation  of  these  thousands  of  additional  acres  of  land — land 
that  is  now  lying  idle  and  unproductive. 

of  our  proposed  development,  will  mean  in  other  lines  of 
industrial  development.  This  is  the  same  hundred  thou- 
sand horsepower  working  all  the  way  through.  It  does 
not  mean  a  hundred  thousand  horsepower  for  each  segre- 
gation of  this  chart,  but  the  same  hundred  thousand 
horsepower  which  accomplishes  all  of  these  things. 

The  chart  on  page  84  will  give  you  some  idea  of  what 
one  horsepower  installed    in  generating  capacity  in  the 


[Page    Eighty-four] 


Interest  to  Every  Citizen 


mountains  means  to  the  farmer.  That  one  horsepower 
will  take  care  of  four  horsepower  in  motors  on  the  farm. 
This  may  be  considered  as  an  average  for  the  West  taken 
over  a  length  of  time  and  is  possible  because  the  motors 
do  not  all  work  at  the  same  time.  This  one  horsepower 
applied  to  twelve  acres  worth  $300,  makes  that  land  worth 
$2400,  and  enables  it  to  produce  $1000  in  crops  each  year. 


25  HP  INTHE 
POWER  PLANT 


100 HRIN  MOTORS 


1.57 


SUPPLIES 


EMPLOYING 

33.5  EMPLOYES 


PRODUCING 

1206,000  ' "COMMODITIES 


Fig.  76  is  a  complementary  one  to  Fig.  75,  in  that  it  shows  the 
results  of  added  industrial  activity  as  more  electric  power  becomes 
available. 


The  next  chart  will  show  you  what  one  horsepower 
of  generating  capacity  installed  in  the  mountains  means 
to  the  industrial  phase  of  our  life.  Twenty-five  horse- 
power at  the  plant  in  the  mountains  supplies  one  hundred 
horsepower  in  motors  installed  in  1.57  factories.  With  a 
capital  investment  of  $147,000  these  factories  supply 
work  for  33.5  employes  and  produce  $206,000  in  com- 
modities annually. 


[Page    Eighty-five] 


StorjT  §f  California 


Carry  this  thought  home  with  you — our  problem  is 
your  problem.  Our  development  means  your  develop- 
ment and  the  development  of  your  business.  It  means 
increased  payrolls;  it  means  more  work  for  the  laboring 
man  of  all  classes  and  trades  in  the  state  of  California. 
Remember  also  that  the  politician  or  political  party  that 
stops  hydroelectric  development  for  one  year  penalizes 
the  people  of  the  state  of  California  to  the  extent  of 
approximately  three  hundred  million  dollars  annually,  and 
this  figure  is  based  upon  actual  statistics.  We  want  you 
to  understand  our  problem  and  believe  it,  because  we  have 
the  facts  and  invite  analysis.  We  want  you  to  come  to 
our  conventions  and  meetings  and  study  our  problems 
because  they  are  your  problems,  and  every  time  you  have 
the  opportunity  we  want  you  to  tell  the  electrical  story  to 
your  employes  all  the  way  down  the  line;  tell  them  just 
what  it  means  to  them  in  dollars  and  cents.  We  want  you 
to  help  put  this  story  over  so  that  we  may  be  allowed  to 
continue  to  play  our  part  in  the  upbuilding  of  this  great 
state  of  ours;  to  make  it  a  great  leader  in  all  of  the 
branches  of  agriculture  and  industry. 


[Page    Eighty-six] 


Public  Policies  Outlined 


Report  of  Public  Policy  Committee, 
Pacific  Coast  Electrical  Association 

Del  Monte,  June  10,  1921 

BY  JOHN  A.  BRITTON 

Vice-President  and  General  Manager, 
Pacific  Gas  and  Electric  Company,  Chairman 

WITH  the  close  of  the  war  and  normal  conditions, 
confidence  was  established  for  the  Pacific  Coast 
States,  and  with  a  certainty  of  their  future,  capital 
has  been  obtainable  for  the  construction  and  development 
of  the  water  powers  of  these  states,  and  it  is  worthy  of 
notice  that  during  the  past  year  a  total  of  upwards  of 
100,000  hp.  has  been  added  to  the  plants  theretofore  in 
existence.  With  the  program  of  development  announced 
by  the  several  power  companies,  it  would  appear  as  if  in 
the  next  decade  at  lest  100,000  hp.  per  annum,  or  a  total 
of  100,000  hp.,  will  be  added  to  the  hydroelectric  power 
resources  of  this  state,  at  a  cost  for  generating  plants  and 
distribution  systems  in  excess  of  $500,000,000. 

Great  strides  are  being  made,  as  have  been  made  in 
the  past,  in  overcoming  the  difficulties  of  long  distance 
transmission.  Pioneering  always  in  the  field  of  electric 
endeavor,  Pacific  Coast  States  again  promise  to  set  the 
unusual  mark  of  transmission  lines  operating  at  a  poten- 
tial of  220,000  volts,  making  it  possible  eventually  for  an 
interconnecting  bus  bar  to  be  maintained  from  north  to 
south,  so  that  a  chain  of  power  houses,  finding  their 
energy  from  the  eternal  snows  of  the  Sierras,  may  equal- 
ize the  matter  of  demand  as  well  as  the  matter  of  shifting 
the  load  as  between  the  different  parts  of  the  state. 

Already  the  interconnected  systems  of  this  Pacific 
Coast  permit  of  the  transmission  of  energy  from  the  Ore- 
gon line  to  the  Imperial  Valley,  returning  in  a  northerly 
direction  from  the  Imperial  Valley  to  the  state  of  Nevada, 
and  while  not  in  a  position  to  take  care  of  or  insure 
supply  to  meet  conditions  in  all  parts  of  the  state,  is  in 
fact  a  reality  that  paves  the  way  for  a  more  perfect  inter- 
connection that  is  certain  to  result  in  the  future. 


[Page    Ei  ghty- seven] 


Story"  §f  California 


Perhaps  the  most  important  thing  that  has  happened 
since  the  war  period,  has  been  the  recognition  by  the 
public  utilities  of  the  necessity  for  better  public  relations. 
That  note  is  sounded  wherever  men  in  the  public  utility 
industry  gather  for  conference;  the  necessity  for  it  is 
urged  by  all  regulatory  bodies ;  it  is  now  the  slogan  of  the 
press,  and  the  far-seeing  and  wise  executive  takes  public 
relations  as  his  text  and  preaches  that  gospel  not  only  to 
his  employes  but  to  the  public  whenever  opportunity 
affords.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  executives  of  all  companies, 
leaders  in  public  thought,  and  newspapers  of  reputation 
and  prominence  are  speaking  and  writing  daily  Public 
Policy  Committee  reports  to  the  people  of  the  whole 
United  States.  The  Public  Policy  Committee  report  of 
this  Section  is  therefore  largely  made  up  of  excerpts  from 
those  executives  who,  having  in  mind  the  welfare  of  their 
companies  and  of  their  consumers  as  well,  have  from  time 
to  time  given  utterance  to  their  views  on  this  subject. 

Mr.  A.  B.  West,  vice-president  and  general  manager 
of  the  Southern  Sierras  Power  Company,  says: 

'"I  feel  that  in  a  large  part  our  principal  problem  can 
be  stated  in  three  words — better  public  relations.  In  every 
community  there  exists,  and  probably  always  will  exist, 
some  two  or  three  elements  which  are  seeking  to  drive 
out  of  business — yes,  to  destroy — the  public  service  cor- 
poration. 

"On  the  whole,  however,  this  section  is  made  up  of 
honest  men,  and  our  problem  is  to  get  before  these  people 
the  facts." 

Mr.  John  D.  McKee,  president  of  the  California 
Oregon  Power  Company,  expresses  himself  as  follows: 

"No  opportunity  should  be  overlooked  of  presenting 
to  the  public  the  truth  regarding  the  utility,  emphasizing 
especially  the  financial,  physical  and  engineering  prob- 
lems, which  have  to  be  met  and  overcome.  The  company 
can  give  the  most  efficient  service  only  if  it  receives  the 
right  kind  of  support  from  the  community  of  its  users. 
Conversely,  business  activities  of  the  community  cannot 
develop  and  prosper  to  the  best  advantage  unless  they 
enjoy  the  benefits  of  good  service.  It  is  to  the  mutual 
interest  of  the  company  and  the  public  that  the  company 
give  the  best  possible  service  and  that  the  public  help  it 
to  do  so." 


[Page    Eighty-eight] 


Public  Policies  Outlined 


Mr.  W.  E.  Creed,  president  of  the  Pacific  Gas  and 
Electric  Company,  says: 

'The  public  service  industry  as  a  whole  should  adopt 
the  policy  of  frankness.  Many  companies  have  done  so, 
but  the  others  should  follow.  Suspicion  feeds  upon  con- 
cealment. Most  of  the  distrust  of  the  industries  arises 
from  things  imagined  and  not  from  things  known.  To 
the  extent  that  an  industry  follows  these  policies  it  will 
find  an  improvement  in  its  public  relations  and  increasing 
cooperation  from  the  public." 

In  this  matter  of  public  relation  there  can  be  no  suc- 
cessful issue  or  no  consummation  of  the  heartiest  desire 
of  those  who  have  the  direct  interest  of  the  companies 
at  heart,  unless  the  mass  of  employes  of  an  organization 
becomes  imbued  with  the  thoughts  and  ideas  of  public 
relation  and  public  service  so  thoroughly,  that  they  are 
directly  the  mouth-pieces  of  the  management  in  all  their 
relations  with  the  public.  The  aim  of  all  departmental 
heads  should  be  to  bring  about  the  initiative  and  thought 
of  a  man,  and  to  encourage  him,  not  alone  with  promises 
but  with  an  actual  demonstration  by  recognition  in  better 
position  or  compensation  of  his  worth  to  the  public  utility 
and  the  public  which  he  thereby  serves. 

The  following  editorial  from  Collier's  of  March  12th, 
1921,  bears  directly  on  the  point: 

"Of  all  the  bills  that  come  to  you  on  the  first  of  the 
month,  which  do  you  pay  least  willingly?  Are  not  the 
two  that  excite  the  most  distrust  the  gas  bill  and  the 
electric  light  bill? 

"There  is  an  explanation,  somewhere,  of  the  lack  of 
good  will  shown  by  the  average  community  toward  the 
public  utility  company  that  serves  it  with  light,  heat  and 
power.  One  reason,  we  think,  has  never  been  fully  stated: 
If  the  power  and  light  companies  were  owned  and  con- 
trolled by  one  or  two  men,  and  named  after  people,  as 
the  majority  of  our  big  enterprises  are,  we  would  be  apt 
to  have  a  more  friendly  feeling  toward  them. 

"If  you  received  your  electric-light  statement  from 
the  'Smith  &  Jones  Electric  Light  Company,'  and  you 
thought  it  too  big,  you  could  go  down  to  see  Mr.  Smith  or 
Mr.  Jones  and  feel  that  you  had  talked  to  headquarters. 
Perhaps  Mr.  Smith  or  Mr.  Jones  would  be  neighbors  of 
yours.  Perhaps  their  wives  would  know  yours,  or  their 


[Page    Eighty-nine] 


Story"  §f  California 


children  would  go  to  school  with  yours.  They  might 
belong  to  your  club,  or  fish  in  the  same  lake,  or  shoot 
over  the  same  marsh,  or  drive  the  same  kind  of  automo- 
bile that  you  do.  You  would  have  no  trouble  understand- 
ing^ each  other." 

The  consumers  of  utilities  are  gradually  becoming 
more  and  more  an  integral  part  of  the  development  of 
electric  light  and  power  industry  which  serves  them, 
by  ownership  in  the  companies  through  the  purchase  of 
its  bonds  and  stock.  The  consumer's  stock  ownership 
plan,  which  found  its  initiative  on  the  Pacific  Coast  not 
over  seven  years  ago,  has  extended  all  over  the  United 
States,  and  today  the  effort  of  the  financial  men  of  large 
and  small  organizations  has  been  to  place  as  much  of  their 
securities  directly  in  the.  hands  of  their  employes  and  con- 
sumers as  it  is  possible  for  them  to  absorb. 

The  attitude  of  the  public  service  corporation  should 
be  to  not  only  enlist  the  investments  of  consumers,  but  to 
make  it  their  business  to  see  that  these  investing  con- 
sumers are  given  full  facts  in  connection  with  the  opera- 
tion and  maintenance  of  the  utility  of  which  they  are  a 
part,  so  that  they  may  be  agencies  in  their  communities 
to  help  in  establishing  a  true  relation  as  between  the 
utility  and  the  public.  With  that  interest  fully  centered, 
it  is  certain  that  much  of  the  agitation  for  municipal 
ownership  or  state  control  would  rapidly  disappear. 

In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  quote  from  that 
dean  of  the  electrical  industry,  Mr.  Samuel  Insull,  who  in 
an  address  before  the  Association  of  Commerce  of  Peoria, 
111.,  on  March  llth,  1921,  had  this  to  say: 

"Efforts  to  cripple  the  public  utilities  under  cover  of 
the  seductive  term  'home  rule'  are  self  condemned.  The 
arguments  most  employed  are  of  no  merit  and  are  of 
questionable  sincerity.  We  are  told  the  utilities  should 
be  regulated  by  local  municipal  authority  instead  of  by  a 
body  of  state-wide  authority,  because  under  state  regu- 
lation many  of  them  have  been  permitted  to  advance 
their  rates. 

"Who  has  not  advanced  his  selling  prices  since  the 
war  period  began  in  1914  ?  Who  has  not  had  to  do  it  or 
go  broke?  As  a  matter  of  fact  utility  service  rates  have 
advanced  less  than  any  other  class  of  prices,  although  the 
utility  companies  have  had  to  pay  two  or  three  times  pre- 

[Page   Ninety] 


Public  Policies  Outlined 


prices  for  their  labor  and  materials,  just  like  the  rest 
of  you,  and  today  public  utility  service  is  relatively 
cheaper  than  anything  else  we  buy — whether  for  our 
business,  our  amusements,  our  tables  or  our  backs. 

"Add  up  for  yourself  the  groups  of  people  interested 
directly  or  indirectly  in  the  utility  business;  consider, 
too,  that  every  insurance  company,  trust  company  and 
bank  owns  public  utility  securities ;  and  that  every  owner 
of  an  insurance  policy  or  a  bank  account  thus  becomes 
indirectly  interested  in  utilities.  Then  you  will  agree 
that  Chairman  Jackson  of  the  Wisconsin  Commission  was 
right  when  he  said  that  49  out  of  50  persons  picked  at 
random  are  financially  interested,  directly  or  indirectly, 
in  'the  growth  and  stability  of  this  great  industry." 

The  long  battle  for  a  Federal  Water  Power  Bill  has 
at  last  ended,  and  the  rules  and  regulations  governing  the 
same  have  been  approved.  While  not  quite  up  to  the 
expectations  of  those  who  have  been  fighting  for  a  proper 
recognition  of  the  necessity  of  water  power  develop- 
ments, the  clauses  of  the  act  are  at  least  sufficiently  lib- 
eral to  permit  a  trial.  The  Water  Power  Act  must  be 
given  a  fair  trial  to  determine  whether  the  public  utilities 
can  work  under  it  to  the  advantage  of  the  public  as  well 
as  themselves,  and  your  Committee  looks  for  an  era  of 
development  such  as  has  not  occurred  in  California  for 
many  years,  and  it  has  come  at  an  opportune  time — when 
the  price  of  oil  has  made,  for  economic  reasons,  a  greater 
necessity  for  the  development  of  water  power. 

It  was  suggested  at  the  Chicago  Convention  that  to 
avoid  the  necessary  delays  in  regulation  caused  by  the 
opposition,  usually,  of  representatives  of  cities  and  some 
particular  class  of  'consumers,  to  applications  for  in- 
creased rates  where  such  increase  of  rates  was  warranted 
by  acute  increased  costs  of  labor  and  material,  that  Com- 
missions in  the  public  interest  should  consent  to  a  cor- 
rection factor  schedule,  applicable  to  costs  of  fuel,  and 
perhaps  also  other  important  cost  items.  In  California 
particularly,  where  within  a  period  of  21/2  years  oil  has 
increased  more  than  300%  in  cost,  and  where  the  drouth 
necessitated  great  operation  of  steam  units,  such  a  move 
would  do  away  with  the  delays  which  have  occasioned,  at 
times,  losses  of  very  considerable  amount  to  the  public 
utilities  which  were  not  overcome  by  the  adjustment  of 
rates. 

[Page    Ninety-one] 


Story~  §f  California 


Generally  speaking,  Commission  regulation  during 
the  past  few  years  has  been  very  thorough  and  judicial, 
and  we  believe  has  given  greater  satisfaction  to  the  pub- 
lic and  the  companies.  The  decisions  of  commissions, 
like  the  decisions  of  the  courts,  are  now  being  regularly 
published  and  form  a  part  of  the  Law  Library.  The  de- 
cisions of  the  courts  and  the  decisions  of  the  commissions 
are  gradually  becoming  more  uniform  and  judicial  as  the 
subject  of  regulation  is  better  understood  generally. 

The  Investment  Bankers  Association  of  America  has 
taken  an  active  part,  in  its  annual  meetings,  in  the  discus- 
sion of  affairs  of  public  utilities,  and  has  cooperated  with 
representatives  of  the  National  Electric  Light  Association 
in  the  needs  and  requirements  of  all  public  utilities.  In 
common  with  the  public  utilities  themselves,  they  recog- 
nize the  necessity  for  frankness  in  public  expression  and 
for  the  cultivation  of  public  relation  and  the  upbuilding 
of  the  integrity  of  the  investment  for  service  to  the 
public,  and  at  its  recent  convention  adopted  the  following 
resolution : 

'Therefore  Be  It  Resolved,  That  it  is  the  sense  of 
the  Board  of  Governors  of  the  Investment  Bankers  Asso- 
ciation of  America,  that  there  should  be  cooperation  be- 
tween the  Investment  Bankers  and  the  owners  and  opera- 
tors of  public  utilities  and  the  regulating  officials  in  laying 
before  the  public  full  information  respecting  the  vital 
importance  of  permitting  and  continuing  expansion 
of  all  kinds  of  utility  service  and  encouraging  such  utility 
regulation  as  will  provide  sound  credit  as  a  basis  for 
financing  to  the  end  that  the  investing  public  may  provide 
the  necessary  funds  by  investment  in  sound  public  utility 
securities." 

It  would  appear  to  your  Committee  that  the  member 
companies  have  a  duty  to  perform,  and  that  is  the  dis- 
semination of  proper  information  among  the  young  men 
and  women  attending  public  schools  and  universities. 

Technical  journals  devoted  to  the  cause  have,  unfor- 
tunately, a  limited  circulation,  and  the  great  daily  press 
only  publishes  that  which  is  regarded  as  news  and  which 
will  attract  subscribers,  which  in  turn  moves  to  the  ex- 
pansion of  its  advertising  column.  Fortunately,  there  are 
some  popular  journals,  such  as  Collier's  Weekly  and  the 
Saturday  Evening  Post,  that  are  now  taking  up  the  public 

[Page    Ninety-two] 


Public  Policies  Outlined 


utility  side  for  the  purpose  of  informing  the  public  gen- 
erally of  the  truth  concerning  the  great  service  rendered 
humanity  by  the  power  companies,  and  on  the  Pacific 
Coast  the  Journal  of  Electricity  and  Western  Industry 
is  doing  heroic  work. 

We  believe  it  to  be  true  that  every  man  interested 
in  the  public  utility  industry  of  this  country  looks  for- 
ward to  the  day  when  his  motives  will  not  be  misunder- 
stood and  maligned,  and  when  the  great  public  will  have 
the  same  confidence  in  his  expressions  as  it  has  in  the  ex- 
pressions of  any  other  merchant  with  whom  it  deals  for 
the  necessary  commodities  of  life. 

We  of  the  industry  realize  that  the  days  of  profiteer- 
ing in  public  utilities  have  gone  down  to  the  dim  and 
distant  past,  and  that  of  all  of  the  businesses  of  this 
great  nation,  there  is  none  in  existence  today  that  serves 
the  public  with  a  less  margin  of  profit  than  does  the 
public  utility;  it  is  practically  doing  business  on  an  eco- 
nomical cost  basis,  earning  only  sufficient  to  pay  the  inter- 
est on  the  money  which  it  must  borrow  to  develop  and 
carry  on  its  work  of  service,  and  laying  a  sufficient  margin 
aside  to  provide  for  the  depreciation  on  its  property 
through  devotion  to  public  use. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  one  horsepower  developed 
in  the  state  of  California  enriches  the  state  to  the  extent 
of  approximately  $50,000,  in  the  creation  of  new  indus- 
tries, in  additional  population,  in  the  building  of  homes, 
and  the  distribution  of  wealth  among  those  who  help  to 
build  up  this  great  commonwealth.  Assuming  the  devel- 
opment of  100,000  horsepower  annually  by  the  companies 
of  this  section,  it  would  mean  that  the  material  wealth 
of  this  Pacific  Coast  section  would  be  added  to  by  the 
sum  of  $5,000,000,000  annually,  contributed  in  connection 
with  the  stable  increase  of  power,  not  for  today  but  for 
all  time. 

To  sum  up,  therefore,  let  us  emphasize  the  neces- 
sity— 

for  better  public  relations; 

for  better  care  and  concern  in  the  welfare  of  their 
employes ; 

for  better  service  to  their  consumers,  and  for 

better  interpretation  through  the  public  mind  of 
what  their  industry  means  to  those  immediately  served. 

[Page    Ninety-three] 


OT  to  •*" 


O       O 

CS         tN 
tN         CN 


g    Sf 


OWER  CO.  Present  Ultimate 
January,  1920.  Date  of  Capacity  Head  Capacity 
as  Co.  on  No.  Fork  Feather  Type  of  Prime  Mover  Completion  H.  P.  Ft.  H.  P. 
irer,  195  miles  from  San 
incisco...  ....2-30,000  h.  p.  Dbl.  Overhung 
Allis-Chalmers  Imp.  Wheels..  5/  7/21  60,000  1,108  180,000 

:LECTRIC  co. 

January,  1020. 
uba  Riv.,  Placer  Co.,  Cal..  1-1335  h.  p.  Allis-Chalmers 
Turbine  11/1/20  1,340  145  1,340 
"reek,  Shasta  Co.,  Cal....  1-15,000  h.  p.  W-S-M  Turbine..  8/1/21  16,750  216.8  16,750 
:reek,  Shasta  Co.,  Cal  1-15,000  h.  p.  W-S-M  Turbine.  .  10/1/21  16,750  201.3  16,750 
le  Fork  Stanislaus,  Tuo- 
ine  Co  1-9,500  h.  p.  Single  Overhung 
Pelton  Impulse  Wheel  10/1/21  10,050  1,865  10,050 

'iver,  Shasta  Co  2-40,000  h.  p.  Allis-Chalmers 
Single  Runner  Reaction  Tur- 
bines    7/1/22  93,800  454  93,800 
ne,  1022. 
iver,  Shasta  Co  7  /  1/23  26,800  1  15  26,800 
T  AND  POWER  CORPORATION. 
January,  1920. 
Joaquin  River,  40  miles 
m  Fresno  3-14,200  Kva.  Allis-Chalmers 
Generators,  Francis  Vertical 
Single  Runner  Type  Turbines  8  /IS  /21  54,000  335  
iles  southeast  of  Bakers- 
d  on  Kern  River  1  Allis-Chalmers  Generator, 
Francis  Type  Turbine  with 
White  Hydrocone  8/17/21  12,000  260 
les  from  Fresno  on  North 
1  Middle  Forks  of  Kings 
fer: 
t«  2  385  162  615 

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Plants  Completed  Since  January,  1920. 
Big  Creek  No.  2,  3d 
Unit  240  miles  north  of  Los  Angeles  .  .  Impul 
Kern  River  No.  3  ....  130  miles  north  of  Los  Angeles  .  .  2-22,5 
Fra 
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Work  Now  Under  Way. 
Big  Creek  No.  1,  3d 
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2d  Unit... 

Id  TTnit 

THE  SOUTHERN  SIERRAS  P 
Plants  Completed  Since  January, 
Adams  Auxiliary  Owens  River  .  . 
Work  to  Be  Begun  by  June,  1022. 
Forest  Home  Mill  Creek  
Leevining  No.  1  Leevining  Crei 

CITY  OF  LOS  ANGELES. 
Plants  Completed  Since  January, 
San  Francisquito: 
No.  2  50  miles  from  ] 

Franklin  Canyon  Owens  River.  . 
San  Fernando  Owens  River.  . 

CITY  OF  SAN  FRANCISCO. 
Work  Now  Under  Way. 
Moccasin  Creek  140  miles  from  S 

IDAHO  POWER  COMPANY. 

Plants  Completed  Since  January, 
Thousand  Springs  
Shoshone  Falls  

UTAH  POWER  AND  LIGHT  C 

Plants  Completed  Since  January,  . 
Oneida  Plant  Bear  River  
Work  Now  Under  Way. 
Olmsted  Plant  50  miles  south 

WASHINGTON  WATER  POW 
Work  Now  Under  Way. 
Spokane  Upper  Falls  

CITY  OF  SEATTLE. 

Plants  Completed  Since  January, 

Cedar  Riv.  Unit  No.  5  

Worfe  TVow  f/nder  P^oy. 
Nehalem  Gorge  Creek.  . 

BRITISH  COLUMBIA  AND  Al 
Work  Now  Under  Way. 
Bull  River...  ..B.C... 

Elk  Falls  Elko,  B.  C.  .  .  . 

BRITISH  COLUMBIA  ELECT 
Stave  Lake  
*Preliminary  —  subject  to  change. 

FOURTEEN  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

KNGINEERING  LIBRAHY 


This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 
on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 

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ry 

" 

£i2432?El''55               uiWJSSSSmi. 

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785368 


Engineering 
Library 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


